Last year, Macmillan Learning and instructors from 13 colleges that primarily serve Black, Latin, and Indigenous students set out to learn more about the impact of evidence-based teaching practices. These are practices that are shown to be effective and help to meaningfully improve student outcomes; many also support student motivation and engagement as well as increase accountability and perseverance. As part of that journey to learn more, Macmillan Learning partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and instructors from institutions with an all too often marginalized student population. While there’s no shortage of research that demonstrates evidence-based teaching practices support students’ deeper learning of concepts and better development of problem-solving skills, there's still a lot more to learn, particularly to learn how to best use educational technology and courseware to support the most impactful implementation of evidence-based teaching practices..  “The research that we’re undertaking will help us better understand which practices are the most effective, how instructors are actually using them with the support of digital courseware, and the impact of those actions on the outcomes of marginalized students,” said Marcy Baughman, Executive Director of Learning Science & Insights. “There’s always room for new ideas and opportunities to do more, and we plan to use what we learn to develop even better solutions.” Baughman added, “We know that student success depends on what happens both in and out of the classroom, and we believe evidence-based teaching practices can make a difference. These practices can help students be better prepared for class, provide more opportunities to interact with course materials and to work on class assignments, and get better feedback from their instructors to prepare themselves for assessments. All of these activities contribute to student success. If courseware can help create opportunities to create an equal playing field for all students and improve student outcomes, we want to learn how.” About the Research Instructors from two- and four-year colleges were part of a study to learn whether (and how) a courseware platform such as Achieve can help to close equity gaps in course completion for historically and presently underserved students. The research, which was conducted by Macmillan Learning in partnership with instructors from 13 colleges, aimed to learn more about the impact of four evidence-based teaching practices through observation, a range of student surveys, weekly check-ins, implementation logs, use of specific tools within digital courseware, and an analysis of student course performance. The four practices include:  Outcome-driven instruction: The study measured the impact of tools within Achieve -- such as goal-setting and reflection surveys, learning objectives, and insights and reports -- on student success. Formative assessment with feedback: The study measured how use of formative assessments like mid-stakes testing, homework with adaptive quizzing (offering hints and targeted feedback) and interactive and low-stakes homework where students are given feedback, video hints, and opportunities to troubleshoot impacts student success. Active learning: The study measured how using iClicker (for attendance, polling, and/or in-class participation), Instructor Activity Guides, and other tactics impact student success. Metacognition: The study reviewed how activities that enhance metacognition and reinforce critical thinking skills -- like assignments that prompt explanations, opportunities to set and reflect on goals, and self assessment/confidence ratings with iClicker -- impact student success. “These best practices teach students soft skills like goal-setting, time management, and metacognition. We plan to quantify the impact of each of the four practices and learn more about the role Achieve and other courseware like it can play,” Baughman said. Introduction to Psychology and Sociology courses were selected for research because they are considered “gateway courses” -- foundational, credit-bearing, lower-division courses that act as gatekeepers to degree completion. Research for Introduction to Psychology will be done using Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform Achieve featuring the best-selling Achieve for Psychology in Everyday Life, 6e, written by David G. Myers and Nathan C. DeWall. Research for the Introduction to Sociology courses will be done using Achieve for OpenStax Sociology, 3e.  Achieve was developed using learning science and in partnership with students and instructors. One of the key goals of the platform is to support students of all levels of readiness and to engage them in and out of class to improve their outcomes. Forthcoming opportunities to participate  Instructors teaching Psychology or Sociology at colleges that primarily serve Black, Latino and Indigenous students are encouraged to apply to participate in forthcoming studies. Research in the 2023 Spring semester will focus on students' sense of belonging and metacognition. The research seeks to understand the impact of using resources embedded within a digital courseware platform to improve students’ sense of belonging and metacognition skills alongside their relation to other outcomes of student success, like course retention, content knowledge and exam scores. Participation in either of these studies provides educators and their students an opportunity to contribute to the emerging research literature on the use of digital courseware to improve equity for traditionally underserved populations. Each instructor will receive a summary of research findings from their classes as well as the opportunity to be acknowledged for their contribution to the research.  Participating in the research also benefits students. In addition to receiving several gift cards, students that participate will have free access to their online courseware. Analysis of the research, which took place during the Fall 2022 semester and had more than 1,000 students opt-in, is currently underway by the company’s Learning Science & Insights team. Once completed, Macmillan Learning will make its findings publicly available and create an implementation guide with examples of evidence-based practices that can be used by any organization developing digital learning systems or other educational technology.  This spring, Macmillan is researching students’ sense of belonging and metacognition. This study, also done in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks to understand the impact of using resources embedded within a digital courseware platform to improve students’ sense of belonging and metacognition skills. The study will also examine whether improved sense of belonging and metacognition skills are related to other student outcomes such as course retention, content knowledge and exam scores. Instructors interested in participating in upcoming semesters for the evidence-based teaching practice or sense of belonging research can get additional details and learn how to apply here.   ... View more

A Bainbridge Island Story, 1942-2022 Bainbridge Island lies ten miles across Elliott Bay from downtown Seattle, accessed by ferry from Colman Dock at the Seattle Ferry Terminal. On a March morning last year, my wife (Kimberly), her close friend (Carina), and I boarded the Tacoma for the short ride, taking in the scenery from its foredeck. We were visiting Bainbridge Island at the invitation of Dave Myers, best-selling textbook author of Psychology and Psychology for the AP Course among several others, as well as books for the general public; his most recent, How We Know Ourselves, having been published last year. For the three travelers, two life-long friends with me tagging along, it was an opportunity to spend a few days on the coastal waters of Puget Sound away from our daily obligations. The invitation to the island from Dave and his wife, Carol, came with one request: Please visit the Japanese American internment memorial on Bainbridge Island.  Formally known as the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial and built on the land where the first internees were taken from their homes, the site preserves the memory of the tragic period in our nation’s history when Japanese immigrants and American citizens of Japanese descent were ordered and removed from their land, their homes, their communities, and their livelihoods and crudely transported to internment camps hundreds of miles away. Issued on February 19, 1942, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Executive Order 9066 authorized the forced removal of all persons on the West Coast deemed a threat to national security to “relocation centers” in remote areas in six western states and Arkansas. The order resulted in the incarceration of 122,000 Japanese Americans, nearly two-thirds of whom were American citizens. The first removal, enforced by Civilian Exclusion Order #1, began with Japanese Americans living on Bainbridge Island.    The memorial is located on a budding landscape on the south end of Eagle Harbor, the cityscape of Seattle not far from view. On this March day the skies are clear and the temperatures a bit brisk as we make our way down the path: its first marker the sinking but orienting words: “Nidoto Nai Yoni” (Let it Not Happen Again). Designed as a “story wall,” and built out of old-growth red cedar, the memorial weaves into the natural landscape, guiding its visitors through wooded acreage recounting the experience of Japanese American families forced from their homes on Bainbridge Island for the duration of World War II. Remarkably, after four long years of internment, most of them would return to reclaim their land and practice the trades that they had hastily handed over to fellow residents under a community promise that their houses, farms, and property would once again be their own. This promise by their fellow residents rejected their government’s racist and xenophobic judgment that if any Japanese American may be a threat then all must be deemed worthy of relocation and imprisonment.  Placards line the exhibit, simply yet artfully designed, each one devoted to an individual or family removed from the island. Each person’s name is paired with their age at time of their forced relocation and recognizes the intergenerational impact on those taken from their homes: Hayano Moritani, 54; Nobuichi Moritani, 27; Tatsukichi Moritani, 24; Shigeru Moritani, 20… Otokichi Nagatani, 61; Kiwa Nagatani, 46; Ichiro Nagatani, 25; Kimiko Nagatani, 23; Kiyotaka Nagatani, 21; Miyoko Nagatani, 15. The placards appear to have no end, broken only by friezes etched into native wood depicting scenes of the families being herded away, children in the arms of their parents, the images ornamented by strings of origami left behind by visitors before us. Pinkish-red leaves of spring accent native growth of mahonia, salal, and shore pine bordering the walkway, steps from where two hundred and seventy-six residents of Bainbridge Island were shuttled to the Eagledale Ferry Landing over the course of the morning on March 30, 1942, federal troops at guard, rifles fixed with bayonets.  Nearly three thousand miles east, the grounds of Hyde Park in the Hudson Valley of New York are a long way from Bainbridge Island but a short drive from my home; stunning and beautiful, they overlook the Hudson River as it winds its way north of West Point. It is now autumn and my parents, Richard and Susan, are visiting. Both of them earned their graduate degrees in political science (inspiring their son to do the same many years later) and each remains a student of history. We are visiting Hyde Park to take in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Presidential Library and Museum located on his family’s expansive estate. It's easy to find parallels in the beauty of the grounds at Hyde Park to what I remember from walking the coast of Bainbridge Island, but I’m on the lookout for something less panoramic: how the inspiration to bear record to one of our great presidents recounts his most grievous act. We make our way through the many exhibits, losing sight of each other as we are distracted by scenes of interest: recordings of FDR’s fireside talks intended to unite a nation, hallways devoted to legislation promising a New Deal, even his statements marking the end of Prohibition. I’m standing in front of a small piece dedicated to the events that followed the signing of Executive Order 9066, a brief mention of Eleanor Roosevelt’s opposition to the act (and her advocacy that followed), a short acknowledgement of its folly, a blight on his presidency it will say. No mention of Hayano or Nobuichi or Kimiko.  Allyship has been on my mind lately, in some ways because it is a newer term to my vocabulary; in other ways, because you come to learn it has always been present in our lives. On that day in March 2022, off the coast of Seattle and on a walkway as American as any other, I was left with gratitude for the allyship expressed by people in our lives like our friend, Carina, and our friends, David and Carol Myers. My wife and I would not have known about the memorial on Bainbridge Island without their insistence or understood their advocacy for it without the stories Dave had written; and the events and memories of that day would not have been as meaningful if we had not shared them with our dear friend, Carina. I’m grateful to the artists that dedicated their time to create a space worthy of the lives and events of the Japanese Americans on Bainbridge Island interned and wrongfully imprisoned during WWII. I’m also left thinking about the role of our communities and the manner in which the people of Bainbridge Island, no matter their ethnic background, took up the cause of their fellow residents’ well-being to ensure that they had homes to return to, land to farm, and trades to pursue. Each story, deserving of memorial, educates us and inspires us, and connects us with a history of allyship. It is one of the reasons why I’m grateful for colleagues that have come together to make Macmillan Learning the community it is today, and with special thanks to those colleagues who form our Pan Asian Alliance Network (PAAN) Employee Resource Group (ERG) and the way they encourage more of these stories to be lived and told.  The March day that I’m revisiting in memory and sharing with all of you ends with Kimberly, Carina, and I watching ships pass through Elliott Bay, many bound for East Asian ports, a few of them perhaps a signal light of how far Japanese and American relations have come. But today, February 19th, on the “Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration During World War II,” we remember the individuals, the families, their stories and their communities, like the ones on Bainbridge Island, that saw events unfold earning  their place in our nation’s history.  ... View more

As a child, we learn our ABCs before we learn how to write. In high school, Algebra I precedes Algebra II. But the connections students need to make in college, or as they transition to work, aren't always as obvious. For example, it’s not as clear that the techniques and rules for writing that a student learns in their composition class will help them with writing assignments in their upper-level courses (or even to get their first post-college job). Knowledge transfer, or the ability to apply knowledge and skills to new situations, is not always automatic or easy. It requires students to learn how to learn—how to both acquire new information and skills effectively and how to apply them in different contexts. While college education is a journey that builds upon what students have learned throughout their lives, research consistently finds that students have difficulty applying acquired knowledge and skills to new or different situations.  Several learning strategies can equip students to transfer their knowledge to new situations, understand complex ideas, and continue learning throughout their lives. There are things that can be done to help nurture that transition and build a bridge between educational experiences. But to do that, there needs to be a greater understanding of why that critical knowledge transfer is not happening. The Transfer of Learning Theory, proposed by Robert Gagne, suggests that transfer of learning is most likely to occur when the new task is similar to the task on which the student was originally trained, and when the student has been explicitly taught how to transfer their knowledge and skills to new situations. Drawing inspiration from and building upon Gange’s research, here are 13 practical suggestions to help instructors support the transfer of knowledge: Have a sense of what students already know: Whether it is from their high school or college experience, or through their own personal exploration, students often come to college with a wealth of knowledge and skills that can be built upon. Low-stakes assessments can help offer both students and instructors a sense of what they already know, as well as what should be an area of focus. Also, validating knowledge can help ease the transition between academic environments and make the student feel more confident in their knowledge. Gain students’ attention: To capture attention, share a surprising fact, use humor, reveal a relevant personal anecdote, or ask a thought-provoking question using iClicker. When students are focused and engaged, they are more likely to understand, retain, and apply what is being taught. Additionally, a positive and engaging classroom environment can foster motivation and enthusiasm for learning, leading to better academic performance. Inform students of the learning objective: Clearly state the goals of the lesson, what learners will be able to do after the session, and why that lesson is important to not only the class, but to their overall learning path. Instructors can also ask students to set their own goals. One way to do this is by reflecting on class objectives with Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys found within Achieve. By setting goals, students can identify what they want to accomplish and prioritize their study plans, monitor their progress and improve their metacognition. Stimulate recall of prior learning: Recall exercises such as asking learners to share what they already know about the topic, or conducting a pre-assessment can help activate prior knowledge. Spellman College Senior Instructor Kiandra Johnson recommends starting a new topic by asking students if they are familiar with a concept, what they know about it, and what they think it might mean. This can help instructors gauge student understanding and build upon it, rather than start from scratch. Fill in learning gaps: Not all students come to class with the same level of understanding. This is increasingly common with learning loss incurred during the pandemic. Macmillan Learning's Achieve platform offers diagnostic tools like General Chemistry Readiness which covers basic math, algebra and chemical concepts to assess students' understanding; based on the assessment results, it also offers recommendations on how to improve readiness for the course. Promote equity and inclusivity in the classroom: Instructors can use methods like culturally responsive instruction to help make all students feel valued and respected, regardless of their background, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or any other personal characteristic. This can help lead to better academic outcomes and personal growth, as well as foster a sense of community and empathy among students, and prepare students for success in a diverse and interconnected world. Present the information effectively: Information should be presented in an engaging, organized and clear manner. This works best when there are examples, images, and visual aids. By engaging multiple senses, tools like animations, videos, or our interactive graphs in Principles of Economics, and other multimedia can help increase student attention, facilitate the understanding of abstract concepts, and provide opportunities for practicing skills and knowledge. Provide learning guidance: Techniques such as summarizing key points, using analogies or comparisons, and asking learners to restate information in their own words can help provide guidance for learning. Tools such as iClicker’s confidence rating can be helpful in this, as they allow students to indicate their confidence level in the answer they have given by selecting a rating, such as "very confident," "somewhat confident," or "not confident." This can help instructors gauge students' understanding of the material, and give instructors information that empowers them to adjust their teaching accordingly. Encourage active learning: Ask questions, conduct group discussions, or have learners perform a task or complete a small project. Incorporating peer learning and other soft skills development opportunities can not only help students engage with the material, but can also help students develop communication and teamwork skills that will serve them well in the future. Student response systems like iClicker encourage participation and interaction with the material. Just as important, they allow instructors to ask questions during lectures and gauge student understanding in real time. Nurture critical thinking and self-directed learning: Encourage students to use the resources available to them, such as research and library databases, to explore and develop their own interests. This will help them to develop a greater understanding of the subject matter and build on the knowledge they have already acquired. This is also where goal setting and reflection shine, as it encourages students to take ownership of their learning by setting their own goals, seeking out resources, and reflecting on their progress. Provide feedback: Feedback goes two ways. To reinforce learning, instructors can provide immediate feedback on a task or quiz, and also offer constructive criticism to help learners improve.  Spellman College Senior Instructor Kiandra Johnson noted that tools like LearningCurve Adaptive quizzing are helpful because they provide immediate feedback to students; this helps them understand why they got the wrong answer rather than creating frustration over missing a question and not understanding why they got it wrong. Instructors may also want to use exit polling to quickly gather feedback from students at the end of a class or lecture. Using iClicker, students can anonymously respond to questions about the session, providing insights into what was learned and areas for improvement. Assess performance: Exams, quizzes, or other forms of assessments can help evaluate how well the learners have retained the information and apply it to new situations. Tools like LearningCurve Adaptive Quizzing use machine learning algorithms to analyze students' performance on quizzes and adapt to their individual learning needs. The system provides immediate feedback, target areas for improvement, and adjusts the difficulty of future quizzes based on students' performance. Also, having learners complete a final project or presentation that requires them to apply the information in a new context can also help assess retrieval. Make information relatable: To enhance retention and transfer of learning, instructors can encourage learners to relate new information to their prior knowledge, and also provide opportunities for learners to apply the information in new and different situations. By drawing on what students have learned and experienced in their lives, instructors can help students see the relevance of the course content to their interests and perspectives. One way to do this is by incorporating real-world examples or case studies to help learners see the relevance and applications of the information. The New York Times offers a lesson plan with four different ways to help students connect with their studies. Learning is a journey that takes place not only in the classroom, but also in the wider world. Building a bridge between students’ different educational experiences is critical because it allows them to connect their previous knowledge and experiences to new material and to better understand and retain knowledge. This helps lay the foundation for students' future success both in and out of the classroom. ... View more

Having recently submitted applications, or with deadlines looming, college is top-of-mind for many potential students. And the decision is a big one. Heading to college -- whether it be to earn a two- or four-year degree -- is a major investment, one that nearly 16 million students decide to make each year. For them, a college degree is not just a path to a better career; it's a path to a better life. That’s because for many students, college is more than just a place where learning is confined to a classroom. For today’s students, learning is everywhere. The college experience can be an important transition to adulthood; one where students will learn and grow. That's because the campus itself is a classroom where students get to know themselves and see the world from a new perspective. College is a shared space for knowledge and growth-seekers. And, importantly, college is a place where students often learn from each other just as much as they do from their courses.  Given the many surprising benefits to college, we have assembled 11 ways college can benefit students beyond the classroom. Exploring new interests: From rowing to reading, colleges have countless numbers of activities, groups, organizations, athletics and clubs. Students are encouraged to explore their interests, discover new passions, and gain a sense of self-awareness. Many colleges also have a student union where students can gather, socialize and get involved. More critical thinking skills: Through problem-based learning, collaborative projects, and writing and research assignments, college courses help students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Their ability to successfully analyze, synthesize and evaluate information will benefit their personal lives while also teaching them a valuable skill for just about any career. Exposure to different cultures and ideas: College campuses are diverse communities that expose students to diverse perspectives and cultures. From courses and guest lectures that invite students to explore new ideas and ways of thinking, to a wide range of backgrounds, ethnicities and life experiences in the student and academic population, to opportunities to study abroad -- colleges can open a doorway in each student's mind to a world they hadn’t before imagined. More job opportunities: College graduates have a much wider range of job options available to them, including many jobs that are not open to those without a degree. In addition, those opportunities are easier to find. College graduates will see nearly 60% more job opportunities than non-graduates; one reason for this is job openings for workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher are advertised online more frequently than those requiring a high school diploma, making it harder for workers without a higher degree to connect with prospective employers. Students can also learn about many of these job opportunities at their college career service or resource centers, which host career fairs and provide students with valuable tips on interviewing and resume writing. Greater employability. According to the Education Pays report, the unemployment rate for those over 25 with at least a bachelor’s degree has consistently been about half of the unemployment rate for high school graduates; the most recently available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2020 cites a 2.2% unemployment rate for college graduates and a 5.4% rate for high school graduates. Additionally, according to a 2019 report by Georgetown University, college graduates are more likely to have jobs that are insulated from automation, which helps to increase students’ long-term employability. Increased earning potential: According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, college graduates earn on average $1 million more over their lifetime than those without a college degree. Someone with a high school diploma can expect to earn $1.3 million in their lifetime, whereas a worker with a bachelor’s degree can expect to earn $2.3 million. This number goes up even more with an advanced degree. Higher job satisfaction: A study by the Pew Research Center found that college graduates are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and report higher levels of happiness. Forty-two percent of high school graduates say their job is “just to get them by,” compared to 14% of bachelor’s degree holders.  Better benefits: In addition to the $1 million to their total lifetime earnings, college graduates are more likely to have access to benefits such as healthcare, retirement plans, and paid time off. Further, employers will often cover a greater amount of healthcare costs or offer more vacation time as well as retirement investment options. A sense of accomplishment: Earning a college degree is a significant accomplishment that can boost self-confidence and self-esteem. In fact, bachelor’s degree holders report higher levels of self-esteem than high school graduates. Networking opportunities: College is a great place to meet new people and make connections that can be valuable later in life. The connections that students create in college with faculty, classmates and members of clubs or student organizations will not only help them to start building a professional network, but can also lead to new interests, friends and other possibilities. Importantly, they will become part of an institutional support network that students can later call upon for work advancements, mentoring programs, and additional skill-building. Personal growth and development: College can be a time of great personal growth, as students learn to live independently, manage their time, take responsibility for their own education, and improve decision-making skills. College is an investment in students’ future that can pay off in many ways. It can open doors to better job opportunities, increase earning potential, and provide personal growth and development, and more. Not only that, within families, it has shown to help in ensuring the next generation will also attend college. Pursuing higher education can be a big decision in terms of resources, time and energy, but there are many reasons why that investment is worth it for many students.  ... View more

Macmillan really walks the walk. There are few truly mission-driven companies out there, and Macmillan Learning is one of those companies: Chris Paddock, Senior Director of User Experience This month, Macmillan Learning launched a new company mission and vision, supported by our core values. The words are new; the actions they embody are not. They codify a mission that we already live, a vision that we believe is within reach, and a set of values that inspire how and why we work the way we do each day.  Our mission and vision provide us with a critical focus. Each of us has made choices that led us to work at Macmillan Learning and these statements help us recommit to the work we do. It's the choices we make that lead us to embrace a vision for the future that is both astonishing to contemplate and yet within our collective grasp: We envision a world in which every student succeeds.  Success is often defined first by what’s possible; however, what is possible is no simple measurement, and not conferred by others upon us; rather, it rests with each individual, as part of a family or group, as part of what citizenship means in a world that is so reliant on educational opportunity to shape it. It is why living our mission meaningfully affects our individual and collective futures, and we live our mission by inspiring what’s possible for every learner.  It’s learning that makes things possible; I’d argue, it has the potential to make all things possible. At work, in the classroom, remotely or via online engagement, learning is a tool with  endless applications; a catalyst for a new, more meaningful set of possibilities for each learner. It is as true for a student at the beginning of their educational journey as it is for the Macmillan Learning team member invested in a career dedicated to helping others. And for each of us, it is through the values that we live that we join every learner on their journey.  True to ourselves. True to our customers. To be true requires integrity, empathy, and dedication. It requires that we be mindful of each decision we make and understand its effect on learners around the globe and on each other as colleagues. When we do this right, we positively and sustainably impact the educational lives of people everywhere.  Inclusion is a choice we make every day. Diversity is a fact; Inclusion is a choice. It is a choice we consciously choose to make every day; one that enables us to work together honestly and authentically. It is a choice that allows us to broaden our educational reach to increasingly wider and diverse audiences, and it is evidenced through our ability to support the learning of every individual along the way. Learning is a journey we are on together. As individuals. As teams. As a company. In concert with authors, content collaborators, outside partners, administrators, educators and, most importantly, students. Now more than ever we have the ability to help any student learn what is important to their success, when and where they are best suited to learn it, and inspire in them the why that will carry them forward on their educational journey. The paths we walk together not only make knowledge more accessible, they enable the development of practical skills and support each student’s well-being, sense of belonging, and intrinsic motivation to succeed.  Shaping tomorrow with today’s ideas.  It is a great reward to know our content, courseware, and learning platforms can positively impact educational outcomes as well as the very opportunities students encounter throughout their education. Our partnership with authors brings new perspectives and points-of-view to new and established fields of inquiry. Our collaboration with digital innovators within and outside Macmillan Learning fosters work that reaches students the world over in ways that help to democratize education and change the trajectory of individual lives.  We are in the business of doing good, and I’m proud of the direction that we’re headed. I hope you join me and your colleagues as we continue to explore how a collective mission set upon a vision of a better world for every student can continue to motivate our work at Macmillan Learning.    ... View more

With the end of the year quickly approaching, I have been reflecting on the building blocks of my team’s success in 2022. Success happens when we all seek to develop effective leadership skills.  As a way to center my team and create an even more inclusive environment for working and leading together, I introduced 5 key qualities for success: Collaboration, Communication, Curiosity, Creativity, and Co-elevation.  I have since seen the team flourish. These qualities have helped us learn and grow, and they are what drive the best team in the industry--from the seasoned veterans to the emerging learners.  Collaboration means working together in new ways and getting diverse perspectives. In the past year, I have seen my colleagues continue to hone their skills in working remotely and learning from one another in ways we could not have imagined just a few years ago. We have mastered the new tools that bring us together virtually (hat tip to you Jamboard, Slack, Google Meet, and Mural!), yet we have embraced opportunities to meet in person again (yes there was hugging!).  These reunions provided so much joy and helped us exercise some muscles we hadn’t used in a while. Being together definitely fuels our engines. Communication means exchanging new ideas, information, and understandings. I recently spent time with our newest editorial team members honing these skills, inspired by Erica Dhawan’s, Digital Body Language. Dhawan wrote, “These days, we don’t talk the talk or even walk the talk. We write the talk.” Her book underscores the importance of written communication and making a continuous effort to minimize the risk of misunderstanding. Communicating carefully empowers us to collaborate confidently. Start with a simple step to improve your communication: identify your preferred method of communicating, and ask your closest team members about theirs. Their answers may surprise you!  Curiosity means asking questions and seeking out answers. Curiosity is what gets me out of bed in the morning. What challenges will we face today? How can we work to help students and educators be more successful? At the National Council for the Social Studies conference earlier this month, I was inspired by teachers seeking ways to expand their toolbox for supporting students. We talked about the realities of learning loss as students missed essential school experiences during the pandemic. One teacher mentioned handwriting as an obstacle to success now that students have returned to classrooms. It was a light bulb moment for me when she said, “I don’t know if they even picked up a pen during the whole pandemic!”  It has helped me move away from thinking too big; instead, I’m asking more questions about incremental support we could offer. How can we best help students gain skills? How can we help them practice in a way that will elevate their learning? Creativity is the critical thinking skill that allows us to “think outside the box” and come up with original solutions to problems.  There are as many creative solutions as there are problems to solve, and I believe that this starts with asking questions. You may have brainstormed to generate creative new ideas, but have you ever tried question storming? Max Joles defines question storming as “a design and innovation technique that focuses on generating questions rather than ideas in the early phases of a project.” Teams then work together to find the most compelling and actionable questions to try to answer.  I challenged my team to ask 50 questions in 15 minutes on a focused topic, and we well exceeded this goal. It turned out that changing the way we generated ideas led to new ways of thinking. This technique is also being used in classrooms to promote student engagement.  Co-elevation is a superpower I continue to look to sharpen.  I first learned about this concept in Keith Ferrazzi’s Leading Without Authority. Co-elevation means working together with colleagues from different departments, with different skill sets, at different levels, with different backgrounds (and likely different preferences for communicating!), and regardless of managerial reporting lines,  to accomplish what otherwise may have been impossible. This concept defies long-held best practices in the workplace of answering to one manager and following one leader on a straight path to completing a goal. Self-forming teams co-elevate using the first 4 C’s (Collaboration, Communication, Curiosity, and Creativity) to solve today’s challenges with their diverse, collective expertise and ideas. These nimble, cross-functional teams share a passion and a mission to reach new levels of success through trust and caring. I see co-elevation at work every day, best exemplified by the finalists in our 2022 Innovation Tournament. Diverse groups of colleagues co-elevated to improve efficiency, products, our customer’s experience, and our company culture and further motivated all of us toward these goals.  Like an athlete who has to practice regularly to stay in shape, we all need to exercise our muscles to strengthen these important qualities, especially as we think ahead to the goals we want to achieve in the year ahead. What leadership qualities do you want to exercise for success in the new year? Which one of the 5 C’s would best help you achieve your goals?  ... View more

With the end of 2022 just around the corner, we asked several Macmillan Learning leaders what their favorite blog was this past year and why they enjoyed it. With nearly 50 to choose from, the answers varied as much as the blogs themselves. Favorites included interviews with authors, highlights from our research on equity in education, the impact of our Employee Resource Groups and more.  Take a look at some of the Learning Stories blogs that struck a chord. We look forward to sharing new Learning Stories with you in the coming year! Susan Winslow, Macmillan Learning CEO: Around the Changing World with Eric Chiang   It was hard to choose just one. While this year’s most useful and tangible deals with active learning strategies, I decided to choose the one that featured our author Dr. Eric Chiang because it didn’t get as much attention as it deserved to. In particular, I like how he relates his travel experiences to writing and teaching. Encouraging students to gain a better understanding of the human experience -- no matter which society, ethnicity or nationality -- couldn’t be more important.  Tim Flem, Senior Vice President, Product:  Macmillan Learning Author Spotlight: Dr. Uzzie Cannon from Norfolk State University.  Dr. Cannon notes that Toni Morrison's Beloved played an important role in her education, introducing her to African American novels--Beloved was also my inspiration to take an undergraduate course that centered on the great African American women novelists! I especially appreciated Dr. Cannon's point in her blog that reading from diverse perspectives is the most powerful way to introduce students to important DEI concepts: "How can we expect students to know or understand things which they haven’t experienced or perceived?" Based on Dr. Cannon's recommendation, Kiese Laymon's Heavy is at the top of my reading list for 2023! Coltrane Stansbury, Vice President, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:  Economic Discrepancies within America’s Favorite Sports -- A Conversation with David Berri In this blog, David Berri notes that there is a long history of girls and women being explicitly banned from sports. Though the discrimination he describes is one that we can see playing out on our televisions and iPhones on a daily basis, the reality is bigger than just that. The discrepancy between the treatment of and pay differential between men and women transcends sports. It’s a topic that I care about deeply and is one of the many reasons why I’m so passionate about the work that I get to do at Macmillan Learning.   Kate Geraghty, Vice President, Communications & Training: The Diversity of Thought and Our Educational Mission by Charles Linsmeier There have been so many moments where I have keenly felt the import and gravity of what we do as an educational publisher; why working to ensure that learners have the opportunity to engage, question, and explore diverse perspectives matters so much to our society. When we witnessed legislation passing in nearly 20 states that restricted content, banning books and learning materials due to coverage of specific topics, I felt it viscerally.  This post, in response to those attacks, filled me with pride and purpose. It was a powerful statement about our commitment to free speech and our unwavering belief in our authors, in classrooms remaining secure learning environments, and the inherent human dignity of every person. “We promote the free exchange of ideas, oppose censorship, and denounce efforts that place politics ahead of pedagogy.” Yes. Just yes.  Susan Elbe, Senior Vice President, Marketing: Representation Matters: LGBT History Month Concluded With School Book Donation Inclusion is a choice we make every day is one of our core values, and giving LGBT employees a sense of belonging is critical to achieve this goal. Through outreach, allyship, mentorship and social community we continue to embrace diversity in the ML community.   We also must ensure the students who use our products are able to see their authentic selves reflected in the materials we publish, and we want to ensure the creation of those materials have input from people with LGBTQIA+ lived experience. Project Open Books is a small way of ensuring that everyone can see themselves in content no matter what age.   Charles Linsmeier, Executive Vice President & General Manager: The Power of Backpacks Full of Books by Coltrane Stansbury Community. Education. Opportunity. At no other time during my twenty plus year tenure at Macmillan Learning has our responsibility to the classroom to educators to students and to our communities been both greater and more achievable. We have broadened the ways that we can reach students from its foundation in helping students acquire new knowledge and skills to being a catalyst for deeper inquiry, contributing to their sense of belonging in their educational journey, and through our authors' works and digital products helping them aspire to achieve what is possible in their lives. Each of these themes lives in the words that Coltrane Stansbury shares in his moving Learning Stories blog about revisiting the Trenton, NJ neighborhood of this youth.  I appreciate this blog post because it illustrates so much of what I value from Coltrane and the friendship that we have developed since he came to Macmillan Learning, from stories we have shared over a memorable lunch in Newark last summer to the collaboration we have had chairing the DEI Executive Committee: an unflappable focus on the positive influence that we have and may further develop with individuals, families, and communities through the work that we do every day at Macmillan Learning.  Steve Hill, SVP, Technology Infrastructure, & PMO: How Metacognition Impacts Student Success To me paying attention to student metacognition is a bet on early learner enablement and ultimately empowering learners.  Supporting implicit and explicit means of supporting metacognition in our platform and products I think demonstrates ML's commitment to the learner.  On top of this, I believe metacognition helps build identity for a learner, allowing them to internalize learning outcomes and overall academic success as part of themselves.  Best quote "It’s completely normal to struggle." Kristin Peikert, SVP, Human Resources: How to Best Support Employees and Coworkers with Autism  Growing up with a mentally handicapped sister, this blog really hit home for me. I know firsthand that having more information available to demystify how to interact with people with disabilities would have been wildly helpful for her. As we continue learning how to become more supportive of our colleagues with differences, we are not only expanding the opportunities available to the disabled community but also enriching our perspectives beyond our own. Favorite quote: "Many of the strategies for working with autistic employees are generally good management tips and advice for working with all types of employees." Shani Fisher, Vice President, Social Sciences: Digital Learning and the Transition to Achieve: A Conversation with Dr. Michael Poulakis.   Many of us have been hard at work focusing on the migration from LaunchPad to Achieve and Dr. Michael Poulakis is no exception. He was an early advocate having participated in our beta study as we developed Achieve. He has seen the power of Achieve using the data to support teaching his students.   Editor's Choice: Marisa Bluestone, Communications Director: Sparking Wonder with Macmillan Learning Author Jim Morris As the author of many Learning Stories blogs, it’s difficult to choose a favorite. But if I had to pick, it would be this one. We created the author spotlight series this year to showcase not only the breadth and depth of knowledge of our brilliant authors, but their passion for learning and teaching. Our authors are what makes our textbooks so special, and each of them took a different path to get to where they are today. It was a delight getting to better know our Biology: How Life Works Author Jim Morris, and discover more about his incredible and unexpected career.  ... View more

Metacognitive skills help to make students more active participants in their own learning.  Whether offering “debriefs” after exams, activities such as “think-pair-share”, or using goal setting and reflection surveys, there are a variety of instructional methods being used to teach metacognition to aid students’ learning. Teaching these soft skills is becoming more and more common as instructors are noticing their students gain deeper understanding of their materials and doing better in class.  Students’ ability to self-monitor and reflect on their learning can have a lasting impact on their lives both in and out of the classroom. Literature reviews on metacognition have provided insight about its many benefits and the mechanisms that make it such a successful tool within education. At Macmillan Learning, we have partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to learn even more about the impact it has on student success - in particular about the benefits of using digital tools to deliver metacognitive support.  We plan to share our findings with the broader educational community. To learn more about metacognition, and the potential impact that courseware may have, I spoke to Macmillan Learning Research Scientist Kelly Boden and Research Specialist Sarah Gray. They shared interesting insights on its role in college classrooms, why it’s such a powerful tool, how features within our digital learning system Achieve can be used to harness its potential, and what instructors can do to have an oversized impact on students ability to develop their metacognitive skills. Is the use of metacognition becoming more common in classrooms?  Boden: Metacognition literature has grown exponentially in the past decade, and evidence for the powerful impact that instructional methods that support it is mounting. However, it’s unclear how much of that research is making its way into classrooms. Instructors participating in some of our research studies who are using Achieve seem aware of what metacognition is, and also a majority report supporting metacognition in some way within their classrooms. This is a positive sign that metacognition is becoming more common in college classrooms.  What is something about metacognition that you'd like instructors to know? Gray: Metacognitive skills, such as self-monitoring skills, help make students more active participants in their learning. When paired with effective feedback, strong self-monitoring skills can help students foster deep learning. It allows students to compare their actual performance to the learning goal, and determine on their own what action they need to take to close this gap in knowledge.  Boden: Metacognition is something we all do - we’re not taught explicitly to think about our thinking. Although it’s something we all do, we’re not always very good at it! Previous research has found that students are frequently inaccurate in their judgments of their own learning, often being overconfident in their accuracy on a task or topic. Luckily, there are research-backed methods to help support students’ metacognitive skills that can be incorporated into any classroom, virtual or in-person, that can have significant impacts.  When instructors think about metacognition, do you think courseware comes to mind?  Boden: Instructors that we’ve surveyed or interviewed usually don’t mention courseware when discussing metacognition. Most are aware of the concept of metacognition, and report using various techniques/methods to support it in their classrooms. Few, if any, mentioned courseware in those descriptions. I don’t think this necessarily means that instructors think that courseware can’t support or incorporate metacognition. Rather, they first think of the underlying instructional methods before attaching it to a particular courseware.  Instructors who have reported incorporating metacognition into their instruction with Achieve have described using it in a variety of ways. For example, one instructor has students complete short polls at the end of each class asking students to rate their familiarity with the content they covered, as well as their confidence in that content. Another instructor gives students “debriefs” after exams asking students to reflect on how the exam went, what they wish they knew going into an assignment, and how they could improve. Yet another instructor described a variety of activities including self-assessments, peer reviews, and group discussions. Others described activities such as “think-pair-share” and critical thinking discussions, all aimed at increasing students’ metacognition.  Within Achieve, instructors definitely identify the Goal-Setting and Reflection Surveys (GRS) as a useful tool for having students reflect on their own learning and strategy use in order to support their metacognition. Instructors have also reported using iClicker as a way for students to self-assess and complete confidence checks of their current understanding of a concept or topic. Also, the adaptive quizzing tool LearningCurve has been identified as a useful tool to support students’ metacognition by helping them to identify what they do and don’t know. This adaptive quizzing style helps students both identify and practice gaps in their understanding.   Gray: Several instructors have indicated to us that they really value having resources such as the GRS in the courseware; they note that this gives students an opportunity to reframe the way they think about their course as something they really have agency in deciding how they experience. Others have also indicated that having reporting on their student’s GRS results makes it easier for instructors to be aware of issues their students are facing, and better support them as a result. What one thing within Achieve can an instructor can do that could have an oversized impact? Gray: There’s a lot of research out there on what kinds of metacognitive interventions are most impactful for students. Research suggests that the interventions that have the biggest impact on students involve instructors delivering direct instruction on metacognitive strategies, providing opportunities for students to practice these skills, and giving feedback on their work.  Boden: Our own research has found that having students complete at least two of the Goal-Setting and Reflection surveys (intro and one checkpoint survey) can significantly increase their course grade by at least 8 percentile points. Our research has also found that completing at least one survey significantly increased students’ reported self-efficacy, engagement, and their sense of belonging. Given these findings, I would highly recommend the Goal-Setting and Reflection surveys! What kind of new features within courseware could help support metacognition? Gray: One set of resources we are piloting in some select disciplines this spring are critical thinking resources - which include not just explicit instruction on critical thinking skills, but also opportunities for students to reflect on how they use critical thinking skills in their assignments as well as their everyday lives. This is direct instruction plus opportunities for practice in action!  Boden: We are developing new ways to directly support students. This includes a website with additional resources about the strategies included in the Goal-Setting and Reflection surveys, which is offered to be directly emailed to students after they complete a survey. The website includes information on the research behind the strategies, practical ways of incorporating the strategies, as well as helpful additional resources (exam checklist, post-exam reflection, & SMART goals template). We’re also thinking of new ways to share and display survey responses with students that will further support their metacognition and learning.    ... View more

Research has found that students who use their metacognitive skills have higher rates of success -- not only do they earn better grades, but they also gain a better ability to transfer knowledge and achieve higher graduation rates. It’s something that we’ve long been interested in at Macmillan Learning, and are excited to learn even more about -- especially as it relates to under-represented student populations. To that end, we partnered with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to research and test equity-centered enhancements for digital courseware, such as our learning platform, Achieve, in the introductory courses of psychology and sociology. We believe that if we increase Black, Latino/a/x and Indigenous students’ sense of belonging and metacognitive skills in key gateway courses, then we can increase the likelihood of students successfully completing these courses along with other courses to come. But why is that? To explain better, it’s important to have a better understanding of what metacognition is and how it can impact student success. About Metacognition As was mentioned in the first part of this blog series, Metacognition is thinking about ways to improve your own thinking and learning processes. It’s valuable within an education setting because it helps students analyze new problems, identify which resources and strategies are useful to solve those problems, and also to assess and adjust their learning strategies as necessary. In other words, the metacognition required within self-regulated learning helps students to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning. Picture this scenario: A student is taking a low-stakes exam in their psychology class. They begin by reviewing all of the end-of-chapter questions to identify which questions they can answer straight away, and which they need to think more on and save for later. Throughout this process, they’re monitoring how many questions they have left and how much time they have before they need to turn their work in. Once they finish, they then reflect on questions they may have gotten wrong and some concepts they could have understood better. They decide to set aside time to look back on the chapter and join the class’ study group. Within this example, the student would have used all three metacognitive skills: planning, monitoring and evaluating. Planning: When students are setting goals for tasks, identifying the task’s critical features, and planning strategies to solve the task Monitoring: When students are tracking where they are in their learning and monitoring progress towards their goals Evaluating: When students are reviewing whether they met their goals and reviewing the strategies they used to accomplish them Using these skills will help make them a better student by enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of the class’ content and develop more productive ways to study. How Metacognition impacts student success At its heart, metacognition is a student’s ability to adapt problem-solving behaviors to different academic tasks. Primarily, it impacts the skills and motivations that control how a student learns, and it's critical for successful subject mastery and achievement. It’s also something that’s commonly referred to as self-regulated learning. By better understanding how they best learn, students will not only retain more, but they will also instill a greater understanding of how that knowledge can be applied to other situations. Some students may need extra time for writing assignments, or know that they need to put their phone away to avoid distractions when studying. It’s having this kind knowledge about how they learn that helps them to create an environment that enables them to succeed. It can also help them to make better use of their own time, allowing them to make even more progress. Picture this scenario: A student approaches their instructor after class to understand why they didn’t do as well as they thought they would on an exam. They read the material and highlighted the points they thought were most important. The instructor asks a question about how to apply the knowledge to a different scenario, and the student is unable to. While the student became familiar with the topic, they didn’t understand it deeply or learn how to apply what they learned. With strengthened metacognition skills, the student would be better able to reflect on their own learning and develop the kind of higher-order thinking that’s required to succeed in class and throughout their college experience. With time, it will be second-nature to the student as they continue to think about improving their learning. How Instructors Can Support Metacognition One of the most important things an instructor can do is to create connections between how students can apply what they learn to their goals -- both within their class and the real world. Psychology and sociology are often required within a student’s general education and are critical to learning about human nature, but not necessarily tied to their major. While students may not have prior knowledge of or interest in the course material itself, the instructor’s role and metacognitive activities become even more critical to the students overall success. Another way is for instructors to ask prompting questions. Research has shown that asking these questions can lead to students’ increased learning and performance. An example of this is requiring explanations of students’ thought process or asking them to defend a position within their homework assignment. This type of task would help the student to think about their thinking and would prompt the kind self-explanation required to demonstrate understanding of the concept. A different set of interventions aimed at increasing metacognition are self-reflection exercises. These goal setting and reflection surveys can serve several purposes including offering insight into students, establishing a baseline students can measure future progress against. This can be done via surveys or exam wrappers, and would include likert scale and open-ended questions to help students reflect on their study plans and goals. Instructors can also ask students to go through their graded exam to reflect on the answer they got wrong and think about how they could improve on future exams. Our own research has demonstrated that courses which assigned two or more surveys saw a minimum 15% increase in assignment completion, which resulted in at least an 8% point increase in student grades in the course compared to those that assigned only one or no surveys. And finally, instructors can help students to build self efficacy by normalizing adversity. Tools such as Learning Curve’s adaptive quizzing with targeted feedback can help students succeed. The adaptive algorithm selects questions for each student based on their own performance, challenging them with more difficult questions as their performance improves. It’s completely normal to struggle in class, and tools like this can help students to identify gaps in their understanding, get targeted feedback and hints, and allow them to solve the problem again correctly. Both the goal setting and reflection surveys as well as Learning Curve’s adaptive quizzing are available within Achieve, Macmillan Learning’s digital learning system. We’ll explore the connection between courseware and metacognition in the next in the series. In the meantime, learn more about Macmillan Learning’s partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ... View more

“You can’t be a great writer unless you’re reading,” said Dr. Uzzie Cannon, co-author of Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Dr. Cannon would know; she’s been an avid reader all of her life. Macmillan Learning recognizes that the success of our textbooks and courseware is in large part due to our outstanding authors, many of whom have years of experience in research and higher education. Dr. Cannon is one of those experienced educators, and it was her teaching experience and specialization in composition and pedagogy that made her the perfect candidate to co-author the latest edition of Rereading America. We recently sat down with Dr. Cannon to learn more about her own educational background and teaching interests. What we discovered is a professor who is passionate about providing her students with the skills and knowledge necessary to become successful young adults with a greater appreciation of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr. Uzzie Cannon, Associate Professor of English at Norfolk State University Dr. Cannon has always been an avid reader, but she didn’t initially plan on majoring in English. When she first arrived at Southern Wesleyan University to begin her undergraduate career, she thought about studying Advertising and Marketing. Nevertheless, her school didn’t offer that degree program, so she decided to major in English during her sophomore year as a way to further develop her communication and critical thinking skills. Little did Dr. Cannon know that her love of reading and writing, which her mother instilled in her during her elementary school years, would serendipitously propel her into a successful future career as an educator. “While I enjoyed my time as an undergraduate in English, I thought first about continuing my education in Journalism,” said Dr. Cannon, “but something kept gnawing in the back of my mind that I should teach.” The gnawing in the back of Dr. Cannon’s mind didn’t turn into a desire to teach until she gained teaching experience during and after her master’s degree. “I had the opportunity to work as a teacher’s assistant and tutor undergraduate students, and I also taught high school and community college,” said Dr. Cannon. When considering whether to continue onto a Ph.D. program, Dr. Cannon realized that her master’s program included more courses in writing and writing assessment than literature, and it quickly became clear that she wanted composition and pedagogy to play a large role in her future studies and teaching specialties. It was during Dr. Cannon’s time as a doctoral student at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro where literature began to take the forefront. “I wanted to live a life of the mind and share that with my students,” said Dr. Cannon. “It’s always been a priority of mine to give my students the type of experience with reading that I was privileged to have my whole life.” Dr. Cannon’s favorite genre of literature is fiction. “In terms of African American literature, I remember reading mostly poetry at first,” she said. “But I was exposed to more fiction and novelists during college, which is where I fell in love with the novel.” Dr. Cannon picked up her first copy of Toni Morrison’s Beloved at a flea market while an undergraduate student. “I had not yet heard of her, and the book was a first edition!” Up until that point, the only novels by African American authors that Dr. Cannon remembers reading were The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Clover by Dori Sanders. After reading Morrison’s Beloved, Dr. Cannon was hooked. While creative nonfiction hadn’t been on Dr. Cannon’s radar as much before, she is now trying to incorporate more into her teaching. “I find memoirs really interesting,” said Dr. Cannon. “I was blown away by Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, and I think we have a lot to learn from Gen X and Gen Y memoirs.” It’s important to Dr. Cannon that her students are exposed to a variety of genres of writing. When asked her favorite part about teaching, Dr. Cannon said it’s that ‘lightbulb moment’ when a student’s expression demonstrates true understanding of something. “It happened recently in my literature course,” said Dr. Cannon. “We were reading Kate Chopin and having a conversation about women’s sexuality and discussing why Chopin was so avant garde. Not all of the students understood what is meant by gender, so I explained how it’s a construct, and their minds were blown,” she said excitedly. For Dr. Cannon, it’s moments like this one that keep her going. “When students have that moment of awareness–of knowing something they didn’t before–that’s what makes my job worthwhile.” Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are at the center of Dr. Cannon’s teaching, and last year she presented a session titled Ways with Culture: Toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Composition Classroom at Bedford / St. Martin’s writing workshop. “I grew up in a very diverse community in Upstate South Carolina,” she said, “surrounded by all types of people and all classes of people.” Dr. Cannon credits her upbringing for providing her with an openness to other people’s ways of being. “We need to respect people for who they are as people,” she said. “It’s important to be aware of difference and to accept and appreciate it. If we’re not intentionally practicing DEI, then we’re not doing our students justice.” Just as Dr. Cannon hopes to share her love of reading with her students, she also wants her students to leave her courses with a better appreciation of diversity. One way she seeks to accomplish this is by exposing her students to a wide range of stories and perspectives. “It’s like the tabula rasa theory,” said Dr. Cannon. “How can we expect students to know or understand things which they haven’t experienced or perceived?” This applies to reading, writing, and practicing DEI. “It’s the reason I started using a composition reader in my writing courses,” said Dr. Cannon, “Rereading America is the second reader I ever used, and it’s the only one I’ve used since. It has a wide array of provocative essays that will get students talking and wanting to write.” Dr. Cannon embraced earlier editions of Rereading America, and it was a bit fortuitous that she was able to become a co-author of recent editions. “It’s sort of a funny story,” she said. “I’d just presented at the Modern Language Association’s annual conference in Seattle, sharing my framework for using online tools in the composition classroom, and a representative from Macmillan Learning appreciated my background in teaching. We got to talking and later asked if I would be interested in co-authoring future editions of the book.” “I agreed to it because I thought Rereading America was absolutely fantastic, and I’d already been recommending it to other faculty,” said Dr. Cannon. While she was quite accustomed to earlier editions of the book, she had been supplementing it with other materials that she wanted students to read. These selections eventually made it into the book. “It felt like a natural fit to me,” she said. Dr. Cannon credits her background as a teacher who has worked extensively on writing assessment for making the transition to co-author a smooth one. “The writing itself felt seamless,” she said. “I was prepared to make my own selections about which material I wanted to include, how to formulate good critical questions, and knowing which enrichment activities to add because I had been doing those things so often before.” After the Modern Language Association in January of 2020, Dr. Cannon spent time during the pandemic to write and edit the latest version of Rereading America. “It wasn’t as time consuming as it would have been if I’d been teaching face-to-face,” she said. Dr. Cannon used some of that extra time to continue working on another one of her passions, black and white photography. “I’ve been an avid photographer for close to thirty years,” she said, “and I like the way that black and white forces the brain to see things differently.” When not teaching or writing, Dr. Cannon likes to spend her time drinking tea and editing her photos. ... View more

Do you remember coming home from school with a backpack full of books and a couple hours’ worth of homework as a child? If not, you must be pretty lucky to not have had any homework. If so, this scenario may sound pretty familiar. You ask an adult–perhaps one of your parents, an older sibling, or another caretaker–for help with your homework, and they start using a completely different method to solve the problem than the method your teacher taught you earlier that day. “This is how I learned it,” they may tell you, and you wonder why your teacher hadn’t taught you how to solve the problem this way.  Maybe you’re a little lost at first, but you follow them along and see that they solve the problem with ease. Now you’re curious. You try to complete the same problem using the method you recently learned in class, and you see that you get the same answer using both methods. Why hadn’t your teacher taught you the method that you learned at home?  You ask your teacher the next day before class and find out that the method you learned at home requires extra knowledge about this mathematical concept, which many of your classmates haven’t yet learned. Nevertheless, there are a group of students who do understand this other method, so your teacher starts grouping you together to work on these types of problems.  This is an example of differentiated learning in which the teacher adapts what they are teaching–or the way they are teaching–to meet the needs and readiness of their students.    What is Differentiation?  Differentiation is a valuable pedagogical tool for educators to create more equitable learning experiences for every student. At its core, differentiation is a framework for effective teaching that involves providing a diverse classroom of learners with a variety of methods to understand new information, regardless of differences in ability.  In order to implement effective differentiated instruction in the classroom, educators should first do their research on an important subject–their students. By recognizing and understanding each student’s unique background, experience, and subject matter expertise, educators can better meet every student where they are and help them on their own learning journey.  While this can be an overwhelming step for educators who have large, diverse groups of students with different needs, levels of readiness, and learning styles, getting to know students better throughout the term will help instructors tailor their teaching throughout the semester, even with limited resources. Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform, Achieve, can help simplify this step with its Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys that give students the opportunity to state and reflect on their goals and needs, and to share this information easily with instructors.    Components of Differentiated Learning Once educators have a better understanding of the students in their classroom, they can then turn their attention to the content, process, and product involved in their differentiated instruction.  Content = curriculum or what students learn Process = how students learn it Product = what students produce that shows what they’ve learned   Content At the content level of differentiated learning, educators may have the option to adapt what they are teaching to meet the needs and readiness of their students. As part of the research phase–when getting to know students–instructors might consider including a course readiness assessment or diagnostic test to gain a better understanding of what their students already know. This way they can begin tailoring the content of their lessons or providing additional reading assignments for students who might need to brush up on a few concepts.  Educators may find that they have a very diverse group of students when it comes to readiness and prior knowledge of the course’s subject matter. Some students may be completely unfamiliar with concepts and others may exhibit partial or complete mastery of certain topics.  The goal of differentiated learning is not to raise or lower standards for different groups of students but to provide learning opportunities that are appropriate and effective  for each student, providing methods for understanding a concept and absorbing new information.    Process The process level of differentiated learning further emphasizes students’ unique backgrounds, traits, and experiences while focusing on different learning styles. Instruction at many universities has often followed a one-size-fits-all approach, mostly through the delivery of lectures. It was very instructor-centric rather than student-centric.  Differentiation gives instructors that chance to focus on the individual, to ensure that each learner can achieve their fullest potential. Students’ culture, socioeconomic status, language, gender, motivation, ability, disability, previous educational experiences, interests, and many other factors have shaped them to create totally unique learners.  Taking into account different learning styles, educators can help students by working with them to develop tailored study plans or by varying content delivery methods through things like reading assignments, lecture, active learning, peer learning, and so on.   Product The product level of differentiation is understood as what each student produces at the end of a lesson or course to demonstrate mastery of content. This can take the form of tests, evaluations, projects, reports, or other assessments.  Instructors should think about what they expect students to show and accomplish on each assignment and at the end of the course. They should ask themselves how they might change their grading scale and expectations, acknowledging that each student starts from a different place and that progress is the main goal. Might you choose to grade on a curve or award students points for showing their work? With differentiated learning, students should have the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned in various ways; again, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.    Tips for Scaling Differentiation in Large Courses Implement one small change. Educators can start small. In a recent webinar about academic integrity, Cindy Albert from the University of Wisconsin-Eau-Claire advocated that faculty start by making one small change when seeking to level up their teaching. This can also apply to differentiation.  Use learning platforms (ed tech) that deliver personalized learning experiences. Learning Curve in Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform Achieve offers students a more personalized learning approach.  Aggregate the data using tools like Achieve and iClicker. Achieve offers Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys, and iClicker can be used to take pulse checks with exit surveys, allowing instructors to quickly see in aggregate what some common needs are across students, and to drill down to the exact student-level needs.  Have you implemented differentiated learning in your classroom? Let us know in the comments below. ... View more

It’s become more and more common to hear about academic integrity challenges among college educators. Whether it be a perceived increase in students’ academic dishonesty or instructors seeking out new ways to curtail any cheating, the pandemic and increase in remote learning has brought a heightened awareness to an issue that has concerned the industry for decades. With readily available digital tools -- like cell phones, group chats, and multiple tabs or screens -- it’s also brought increased suspicion within college classrooms. While the challenges are new, the problem of academic dishonesty is not. International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) founder Dr. Donald McCabe found that more than 60 percent of students admit to cheating in some way while in college -- both in his initial research in the 1990s and in subsequent studies. There are, however, resources and tools available to teachers and institutions to encourage academic integrity and help dissuade students from cheating or being dishonest.  But what exactly is academic integrity? The ICAI defines it as a commitment to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. Academic dishonesty, on the other hand, happens when there’s cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, or falsification, and it happens for a variety of reasons. While some students are worried about grades, others succumb to peer pressure and yet others just take advantage of an opportunity that is presented to them. There’s no one silver bullet to fixing the problem.  There is one other important category -- the students that may not even be aware that what they’re doing is dishonest; this has less to do with cheating and more to do with offering students the support they need in order to succeed. In a recent conversation blog about the state of academic integrity, Dr. Camilla Roberts, Kansas State University Director of the Honor and Integrity System, and Cindy Albert, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Associate Director Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning spoke directly about the support students need. Teachers, colleges, students, and we at Macmillan Learning all want the same thing -- which is to see students succeed. Academic dishonesty can be a major barrier to accomplishing that goal, with consequences extending well beyond getting caught. For example, students construct an understanding of a topic, in large part, based on prior knowledge of it. When academic dishonesty is involved early on, students may not acquire the knowledge necessary to connect the dots with future lessons or more advanced courses. Free & Low-Cost Tools and Resources for Academic Integrity Some tools for detecting dishonesty have been around for quite some time -- like software that allows professors to identify whether or not students’ writing has been plagiarized -- others are quite new. But supporting academic integrity should be more than just finding an EdTech tool to catch cheating and punishing the cheaters. In fact, uncovering academic dishonesty is just one of several ways to consider the topic. The other, which may be even more effective, is to proactively support academic integrity. With a goal of offering tools that educators can use to teach students about academic integrity and help create a learning environment that supports it, Macmillan Learning has compiled a list of free and low-cost resources and tools that support the journey: Create support services. Writing labs or tutoring services encourage both academic integrity and student success by supporting persistence and helping to eliminate one of the causes of cheating -- students' low confidence in their understanding of the materials. With academic assistance, students are more likely to persist and succeed in college, according to recent research from the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations. Events and activities that promote education and transparent dialogue around academic integrity. It’s not just  instructors who can play a part -- colleges, non-profit organizations, and leading educational technology and publishing companies have a role to play as well. The International Center for Academic Integrity promotes and supports academic integrity & integrity of the academy, and often hosts events and activities on their social media, including Twitter.  Other examples include UC San Diego’s series of events and activities in support of academic integrity, including a mentorship program, integrity awareness week, and contests. Macmillan Learning is also hosting three free webinars in October about the topic, which you can register for here. Get to know your students. When instructors build a strong connection with their students, those students can be less inclined to engage in dishonest behavior because they’re more likely to ask for help when they need it most. A degree of trust and mutual respect is required for this, and it can be built with a little extra effort. Make it a point to get to know your students. Learn their names, encourage them repeatedly to attend office hours, and remind them that you are a resource for them. Investigate misconduct. Unfortunately, proactive measures to support academic integrity don’t always work. There’s no way to eliminate every instance of cheating or prevent every form of plagiarism. It is important to report suspected violations to your institution for investigation. Students may engage in dishonest behavior at higher rates when violations go unreported because they have not experienced any consequences.  Low-stakes quizzing. Many students engage in dishonest behavior because they feel immense pressure to do well in a course or on a single assignment. Nearly every student wants to succeed but when so much of their grade depends on only a handful of assessments, they might turn to dishonesty in an attempt to ensure that success. Frequent, low-stakes assessments can be a great way to check students’ knowledge and progress to identify areas where additional review is needed and to provide them with more opportunities to make the grade. Another tool to consider is authentic assessment, which asks students to apply what they have learned to a new situation; many assignments within Achieve can be adapted to include elements of authentic assessment. Further, the student engagement system iClicker supports frequent, low-stakes assessment and student engagement through active learning. Model behavior. Students look to their instructors for guidance, not just information. One way that you can encourage academic integrity in your students is to model it for them. Source and cite your course materials the way that you expect your students to on their assignments. Answer students’ questions with the same honesty and integrity that you expect them to answer yours. Show students how to cite their sources by teaching them to use documentation advice in their handbooks/textbooks and taking time to have specific lessons on citation practices in your discipline. And when you set an expectation with students, follow through as consistently as possible. We’re often surprised by how much our students don’t know about academic integrity. They may not understand the boundaries of plagiarism. By modeling integrity, you can help students learn how to be good, honest scholars.  Plagiarism review: This type of tool is available in modern courseware, including Achieve for English courses. It works two ways -- students can check their drafts for potential plagiarism and instructors can use it to check work after it’s been turned in. For example, if a writing instructor chooses to enable Achieve’s Source Check feature, students can check their drafts for possible issues with their use of sources and receive instruction that helps them evaluate and fix any problems. Services like Grammarly and Turnitin are also used by colleges and universities to check the integrity of students’ work. Review your institution’s honor code and set your own class policies. Every institution has a code of academic integrity, an honor code, or a code of conduct that clearly outlines the college or university’s expectations of students, potential violations of the code, and consequences for violating the code. Whether you choose to include it in your syllabus or dedicate time on the first day of class to reviewing it, or both, it’s important to remind students that they have agreed to the honor code. You can take additional measures by setting your own class policies for academic integrity and making your students aware of them. Students may have a great deal of motivation to engage in dishonest academic behavior, and possibly countless opportunities to do so. Techniques and tools that center transparency and academic honesty can help deter some of the most common forms of dishonesty. Have you used any of these techniques in your courses? ... View more

Andrea Lunsford, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Emerita, Stanford University“Everything’s an argument,” says Andrea Lunsford, co-author of the eponymous book. If you disagree, she’ll ask you to provide her with an example. “What’s something that you don’t believe is an argument?” she’ll ask. Then she’ll argue that whatever example you provided is, indeed, an argument. She wins every time. She’s never yet been stumped.  “But, it’s not about winning,” she’ll tell you next. There are so many purposes for arguing, and winning is way down at the bottom of the list. Andrea will encourage you to think about the consequences of our arguments–what do we learn from arguments? “We also argue to explore,” she’ll say, “but mostly to understand things. Even meditation and prayer are forms of argument with oneself–to better understand oneself.” This month’s Macmillan Learning Author Spotlight series features the co-author of Everything’s An Argument, Andrea Lunsford, who recently led a workshop titled “Teaching (Ethical) Argument Today” with our Bedford New Scholars. I met virtually with Andrea earlier this summer to learn more about her career as an educator and author, and to hear how retirement is treating her.   July 26, 2022 – It’s a beautiful midsummer Tuesday–depending on where you live. Even Americans’ favorite topic of smalltalk–the weather–is an argument. While large swaths of the country endure relentless heat, it’s pleasantly cool on the Northern California coast. Andrea spends this crisp morning harvesting vegetables from an organic community garden. Today she harvests broccolini, squash, and the first potatoes of the season. The members of the community call the garden “Posh Squash.”  Andrea works in the garden every Tuesday. Her shift begins at 8:30 in the morning and ends thirty minutes past noon. Though today she must cut that short. Her interview with me begins at one o’clock sharp, and she needs to rush home to freshen up.  She’s punctual, joining the call right on time. We spend the first few minutes discussing the pronunciation of our Germanic last names. We’re both fascinated with language. I learn that her niece-in-law speaks six languages, which provokes a short discussion about code-switching. I’ve the feeling we could spend hours talking about our mutual interests, but our time today is limited.  We begin discussing Andrea’s own education journey. Did she always know she wanted to be a teacher? When I ask her this, she tells me she was always an avid reader and writer as a young girl. “I used to make my brother and two sisters take lessons from me,” she says, “and when we went to the five-cent movies, I would make them walk in a line behind me,” she adds with a smile.  Growing up in a very segregated and restrictive society, Andrea learned early the liberatory potential of literacy. Born in Oklahoma, her family moved to Eastern Tennessee after her father was rejected from World War II because of his flat feet and poor eyesight. After he secured a job with an aircraft corporation and became an accountant, the family moved to St. Augustine, Florida.  “I couldn’t imagine going anywhere other than my state school,” Andrea says. So, she enrolled at the University of Florida, where she completed both her bachelors and masters degrees in English. While she was interested in pursuing her Ph.D., her advisor, whom she describes as an old, white man, told her that she should go home, get married, and have children. “At the time, I wasn’t offended,” Andrea says.  Andrea did go home after that, but she didn’t become a stay-at-home mother and housewife. Instead, she started teaching. “I taught every grade from seventh through twelfth,” she tells me. “Juniors and seniors were some of my favorite ages to teach,” she says, “though I liked teaching juniors a bit more because they aren’t yet jaded and don’t have senioritis,” she jokes. Andrea also believes that anyone who teaches middle school is a superhero. “Teaching seventh graders always felt like a battle; either they were going to kill me or me them,” she adds.  While continuing to teach high school English, Andrea also began teaching night classes at a community college. “It was then that I started to think more about my advisor telling me that I couldn’t get a Ph.D.,” she says, “and I started to become angry about it.” She started looking at schools, and decided to apply to The Ohio State University in order to study under Edward Patrick Joseph Corbett, author of Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. It was Corbett’s book that really sparked Andrea’s interest in the study of rhetoric. After spending a short time on the waitlist, Andrea was admitted and arrived in Ohio in 1972. “This was during the height of significant political and social unrest,” she says. “There were many protests and conflicts, and the Kent State Killings were only two years prior.” It was this time of Andrea’s life that instilled an ongoing interest and enthusiasm for feminist scholarship and writing about women’s issues. “I’ve always wanted to teach young people how to speak and write with power–to have agency and take control of their own lives through discourse,” she says.  Andrea retired a few years ago, but she continues to speak to many students during virtual classes, conferences, webinars, and workshops. “What I miss most about teaching is the students,” she says. When I ask her about her experience with the Bedford New Scholars, she tells me she most loved hearing about their own work. “These students are working on exceptionally interesting projects and implementing really innovative teaching strategies.”  Students often have just as much to teach their teachers as the teachers have to teach them. Andrea shares with me a recent instance when a student really made her think. “I gave a talk at UC Irvine about writing style, and this young man asked me how he could make his sentences sing,” she says. “That was one of the best questions I have ever been asked. It’s certainly possible to make a sentence sing; we all know one when we see it.”  Andrea enjoys the stylistic part of writing, and she credits many women and especially women of color for creating more freedom in academic discourse. She quotes Maya Angelou, who said “I love a sentence,” and she tells me about Gloria Anzaldúa. “Gloria told me that early in her career she was strongly discouraged from genre mixing, which is something she became quite known for,” Andrea says. “She had an old, white male professor at the University of Texas who did then encourage her to write as she wished, and that gives me hope for the world.”  Writing Everything’s An Argument was one of the highlights of Andrea’s career. She tells me that her co-author, John J. Ruszkiewicz, had students that were complaining about their argument book, and so they decided to write their own. Their book is designed to help students understand and analyze the arguments around them as well as create their own. Sounds like a good skill to me since, as Andrea has now taught me, everything’s an argument. Andrea tells me the most fun she had was developing the Hume Center for Speaking and Writing at Stanford University. There wasn’t an existing writing center when she first arrived at Stanford in 2000, and she didn’t want to institute a new curriculum without one. “We could make it however we wanted to,” she says enthusiastically. “But, we wanted it to first and foremost be a place for the celebration of writing.”  In the beginning, the center sponsored higher-level writing seminars that brought in a far larger audience than expected. “We learned quickly that we needed more room because so many people showed up,” she says. “Eventually, we started hosting writer’s nights, the Stanford Spoken Word Collective, tea parties for multilingual students, parents’ night during parents’ weekend, where parents and students could read together, music nights… everything you could think of!” Photos from "Posh Squash" Community Garden Andrea tells me how much she misses spending time at the center. She always used to conduct office hours there, and she tutored thousands of students during her time at Stanford. Nevertheless, retirement has certainly allowed her to pursue other hobbies and interests, including tending to the community garden.  Andrea stays plenty busy. She tells me she goes to the gym three times a week. “Though I’m not a regular gym rat,” she says. “I’m a gym swan because I don’t sweat,” she jokes. Her nephew will come for a visit later this afternoon. If the good weather holds, which it surely will, they may enjoy a walk along the beach.   Andrea Lunsford, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of English emerita and former Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University, joined the Stanford faculty in 2000. Prior to this appointment, she was Distinguished Professor of English at The Ohio State University (1986-2000) and, before that, Associate Professor and Director of Writing at the University of British Columbia (1977-86) and Associate Professor of English at Hillsborough Community College. A frequent member of the faculty of the Bread Loaf School of English, Andrea earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Florida and completed her Ph.D. in English at The Ohio State University (1977). She holds honorary degrees from Middlebury College and The University of Ôrebro. Andrea's scholarly interests include the contributions of women and people of color to rhetorical history, theory, and practice; collaboration and collaborative writing, comics/graphic narratives; translanguaging and style, and technologies of writing. She has written or coauthored many books, including Essays on Classical Rhetoric and Modern Discourse; Singular Texts/Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing; and Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the History of Rhetoric, as well as numerous chapters and articles. For Bedford/St. Martin’s, she is the author of The St. Martin's Handbook, The Everyday Writer, and EasyWriter; the co-author (with John Ruszkiewicz) of Everything’s an Argument and (with John Ruszkiewicz and Keith Walters) of Everything’s an Argument with Readings; and the co-author (with Lisa Ede) of Writing Together: Collaboration in Theory and Practice. She is also a regular contributor to the Bits teaching blog on Bedford/St. Martin’s English Community site. ... View more

The first few weeks of classes are cruising, and your students aren’t yet snoozing. Either they haven’t yet lost that new-school-year excitement, or your active learning strategies are keeping them engaged–perhaps a mix of both!  Active learning requires that students learn by doing; they aren’t only passive observers of class lectures. Instead, instructors create an environment in which students are able to practice their understanding of course material and develop skills by actively participating.  Active learning not only improves student engagement; it also increases student performance. According to a 2014 meta-analysis of 225 previous studies, the implementation of active learning techniques correlated with students earning nearly half a letter grade higher on test scores in science, engineering, and mathematics.  Active learning works, which is why many instructors are already using these five active learning strategies in their classrooms: Asking students to work through problems in class. This can include solving math problems, working through economics concepts such as supply and demand, or responding to an essay prompt.   Assigning group work. Each member of the group can also be assigned a specific task to ensure that all students are actively engaged.  Assigning presentations. When students are asked to present, they’re required to reflect on their knowledge and communicate their understanding. Presentations allow students to practice many skills including task or group member delegation, research, and speaking skills, among others.  Participating in LMS discussion boards. Students are able to share their thoughts about class material and interact with others virtually.  Asking students to facilitate small group discussions. Not all students feel comfortable sharing their ideas in large classes but are more inclined to in small groups.  Exhausted this repertoire of active learning strategies and looking for new techniques to try? No problem! Here are five less commonly used active learning strategies to keep your students engaged through the end of the semester:  Using Case Studies. Case studies provide students with real-world examples of the concepts they’re learning in the classroom and help them contextualize course content. Case studies also provide an easy way to foster collaboration between students by incorporating the common active learning strategies listed above. In-Class Polling. Similar to asking students to work through problems or answer quiz questions, in-class polling gives every student a low stakes way to get involved. In-class polling promotes critical thinking and reflection by asking students questions that are more experiential.  Peer Instruction. Ever heard an instructor say that they finally learned the material by heart because they were tasked with teaching it? The same applies to your students. Having to communicate what you’ve learned with others reinforces your own grasp of the material.  Gamification. It’s time to turn classtime into gametime! Keeping learners engaged can be a challenge, and one solution is to teach through games. You can have your students participate individually or in teams, and you can provide incentives such as points earned for correct answers.  Pre-Class Activities. Unlike regular homework assignments turned in before class and not discussed until graded and handed back to students, pre-class activities require that students come prepared to class with something that will be used during that current class period.  Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform, Achieve, and iClicker make it easy to implement many of these active learning strategies. Achieve is a comprehensive course management system that’s accessible to students before, during, and after class, and iClicker was designed specifically for student engagement, lending itself to teaching techniques such as interactive games and easy polling.  Have you tried some of these active learning strategies in your classroom or have others not included above? We’d like to hear from you! Let us know about your experiences with active learning strategies in the comments below. ... View more

Dr. Eric Chiang is no stranger to being online and in front of a camera. The Economics: Principles for a Changing World 6e author and instructor was a pioneer in online learning, bringing tech to teachers and students - an environment he was very familiar with well before virtual learning took over during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, his stint on the nationally televised show Holey Moley was when I first met him. Just as I was curious about his time on the show in 2019, I’m curious about what got him to that point. At Macmillan Learning, we recognize that the success of our textbooks and courseware is in large part due to our outstanding authors. With this Author Spotlight series, we offer students and instructors a unique opportunity to better get to know these extraordinary authors, whose remarkable careers and interests often extend far beyond higher education.  There’s so much genuine interest and passion about the world’s economies within Dr. Chiang that helps make Principles for a Changing World the compelling text that it is. Within it, learners can hear his distinct voice speaking to them as they are introduced to economic concepts and the many unique examples from both within the United States and around the world. Economics can be practical Economics doesn’t have to be some pie-in-the-sky, impractical set of concepts. And Dr. Chiang doesn’t teach it that way because he didn’t learn it that way. His journey into economics began when he was just a boy, with everyday lessons from his father, a chemist by trade, who had immigrated from Taiwan in the 1960s. While his father had always been interested in economics, he felt compelled to go with the trend of the time within the Taiwanese culture of coming to the United States and studying either engineering or the sciences. Despite that, his father never lost his interest in economics, and he began to teach Dr. Chiang the principles of it with practical life lessons -- how to be frugal with money, how to save money and how to invest money. “He got me excited because he spoke about it in ways that made sense. Oh, we eat at Wendy's a lot, do you want to own a piece of Wendy's?” Dr. Chiang did want to invest and he saved his birthday money and allowances for some time so that he could invest $100. “He taught me about how companies make profits, how companies work -- and the fact that I owned just a few shares of Wendy's … it felt really exciting.” And it’s that same practical thinking that he uses to teach his students at Florida Atlantic University and the College of Southern Nevada. His interest was further piqued when, in high school, he had the opportunity to take classes at Indiana University South Bend. “Everything I’d learned as a child just sort of formalized into these economic models.” And while he considered pursuing careers in his other interests during his undergraduate years of college, like geography or hotel management, he was always drawn back to economics. “Economics provided a foundation that allowed me to study many other subjects,” he explained with a smile. It was ultimately Game Theory, the study of how and why people make strategic decisions, that took him from the role of student to teacher. As a graduate student at the University of Florida (Go Gators) he was expected to teach an undergraduate class; he saw that Game Theory was an option in the catalog and decided to go for it. It was his first teaching experience, so he over-prepared his lectures, memorizing and scripting them. As it turns out, that wasn’t necessary. “As soon as I stepped into the classroom it became so natural, I absolutely fell in love with it. From that point on, I knew I was going to be a teacher because spending time with my students in the classroom was the highlight of my week.” And while he loved teaching Game Theory, the topic proved to be a specialty and niche subject. So niche that he was having to come up with his own course materials for his students because there wasn’t much out there for him to use. “I wasn't satisfied with the existing textbooks at the time, so I was always using my own content.” And while he went on to customize chapters in other economics textbooks, something was still missing in those textbooks and, well, most others. “One part missing in most books that I wanted was the story behind the concept. For example, most principles textbooks jump right into supply and demand, they jump right into elasticity, and they didn't really start the chapter with ‘Why is this important, and how is this relevant to everyone's life?’, and that was the part that I kept sort of filling in right when I customized the book.” And soon enough, he got the chance to write one on his own terms. At first he began as an accuracy checker and reviewer of an economics textbook written by Jerry Stone, but quickly became more and more involved as a contributor. The two authors had a lot in common, with both Stone and Chiang teaching at public universities catering mostly to non-traditional students, who often took classes at night because they were working during the day or had families. Both believed in teaching practical, usable versions of economics -- Chiang understood just how valuable the students' time was and wanted to help them invest it in their future. To do that, Stone and thereafter Chiang tailored the textbook to the needs of those students with the philosophy of being practical and connecting economics to the real world. “You have to be a little more thorough in your explanations, and you have to provide those additional explanations and examples and connect what we're learning to the real world.” That philosophy may be the reason why the largest population of students using the book are those from community colleges. A global perspective When Chiang began authoring the Principles for a Changing World textbook in 2014, he brought in a wealth of modern examples and global perspectives to create even stronger connections with the students. He also placed a greater emphasis on data literacy, all while still staying true to the original philosophy of being practical and connecting economics with the real world. In writing, he made sure that the text attempted to make connections with every student by offering examples from across various regions of the US and even the world. “Take, for example, sports. We’re not just talking about baseball and football in the examples. We’re also talking about cricket, soccer and field hockey. That makes it more relatable.” Chiang is passionate about international travel and culture, which is evident throughout the textbook. Every chapter of the book has an “around the world” feature, offering a different way to think about economics. “If you look at most other textbooks, if they're talking about something in another country, it is because they're comparing their country with our country. It’s their growth rate vs. ours. For me it's more from an individual perspective -- if you were standing in that country, how would someone in that country solve a problem?” Take, for example, Disneyland in Tokyo. It’s quite different from the Disney World or Disneyland that students in the U.S. are used to. Culturally, in Japan, they are not as interested in thrill rides, like roller coasters, but they love photo taking. “Line management in dealing with scarcity and surplus is different in Japan. The park is so crowded but everyone's having a great time because there's so many characters walking around, and you can always take a picture with them and it's a very fulfilling experience …It's just interesting to see how different countries address different demands, and different cultural differences of what people value and that goes into their decision making. It all goes to show there’s not just one way to solve an economic problem.” Growing up, Chiang never traveled far from his Indiana hometown. So as an adult he makes up for it by trying to visit a new country every year. He wants to bring new examples, ideas and stories to his students, which is how he came up with the idea of his Around the world in 80 hours series which is “a fun way to show the class how economics is all around the world.” I asked him about his favorite spots and he mentioned Japan and Singapore. Although he tends to stay a very short time in each country, his reasoning is that there’s around 200 countries in the world, so he’d like to have a glimpse of as many countries as possible -- his face lights up just thinking about it. His most striking economic lesson was when he traveled to Bhutan, a small agricultural Kingdom in the Himalayas. According to Chiang, while it’s not modern (he did not see a single traffic light in the entire country), it’s one of the safest, healthiest and happiest places in the world. “You know they don't have much, but they live very, very well so to me that's a striking economic example.” “The government doesn't measure their well-being through gross domestic product, which is how every other country measures the size of their country.” Rather, Bhutan has a Gross National Happiness Index comprising of nine domains that include psychological well-being, health, education and good governance, among others. “I think Bhutan offers an example of the opposite of what we think of as societal norms - you don't have to have money or lots of possessions, but you have to have community. And that’s a different way of thinking about the health of a country and its economic well-being.” And that’s what makes Bhutan Bhutan. And what makes each student their own person as well, which is why it’s so important that diversity is not only recognized, but championed. “Everyone faces different circumstances and manages resources differently, and that's what economics is about. How you manage your money and your time is different from how I do it. A lot of it's based on our circumstances and values, and how we grew up, and that's based on cultural diversity,” Chiang said. Students growing up in a small town have vastly different experiences than students growing up in an agricultural community, which differs vastly from those in a large city. And that’s just taking into account population size, let alone ethnicity, background, gender or income, among other factors. And that’s true for the world around us, for our classrooms and also for our textbooks. “In the past century there have been so many prominent economists and Nobel Prize winners that are women and people of color, and we highlight the biographies of many of these important contributors to economics,” Chiang noted. He cited Cecilia Rouse and Phyllis Wallace as examples. He further explained, “People always talk about prominent macroeconomist Milton Friedman, but actually he worked most of his life with Anna Schwartz, who was equally deserving of the Nobel Prize.” Dr. Chiang just finished writing the sixth edition Economics: Principles for a Changing World and notes that it will offer the practical and relevant content that’s been counted on for many years as well as fantastic new features like interactive graphing. But this new edition will offer even more information about diverse economists like Rouse and Wallace and how their contributions have affected our everyday lives -- including the economic decisions we make today. It will also include more stories, just like the Gross National Happiness Index from Bhutan that help students understand different ways of thinking about economics. Until then, you can find Dr. Chiang at FAU, UCS, or somewhere at cruising altitude. ... View more