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

The number of students who decide to attend college has ebbed and flowed over time. In May 2022, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that total undergraduate enrollment decreased by 9 percent from fall 2009 to fall 2020 (from 17.5 million to 15.9 million students.) The declining numbers have many questioning whether or not students see value in having a college education.  So, is earning a degree relevant? Is it necessary? Is the sky falling for higher education? While the chicken littles within the education ecosystem would have us believe we should take cover, the reality is a bit more complicated. Though enrollment is down, data from a recent New America survey shows that 75 percent of Americans believe education beyond high school offers a good return on investment.  Brian Powell, Department of Sociology Professor at Indiana University, and UCLA Professor Natasha Quadlin have conducted national surveys of public views regarding college which overwhelmingly demonstrate that the American public sees a college degree as important. “The majority of Americans believe that a college education today is more important than it was a decade ago,” Powell said. Students have to weigh the cost of college and investment they’ll need to make against the value they believe they will take away from it. So while the costs are higher than ever, and the gig economy has incentivized entrepreneurship, a college education is still viewed by most as a doorway to future success.  The Data & the Value Having a postsecondary education has long been associated with better economic outcomes, like lower unemployment rates and increased earnings. According to Powell, going to college is more relevant than ever. The median annual income for college graduates was $61,100, almost double of those whose highest level of education was high school. “The income difference between a high school graduate and a college graduate is huge and continues to grow,” he noted.  The economic differences remained true during the pandemic. Employment was 86% for college graduates, 75% for those with some college and 68% for those who completed high school or the equivalent for 25- to 34-year-olds. College graduates also fared better during the pandemic. Those without a degree were more likely to work in settings that didn’t offer benefits like telecommuting and in industries that were disproportionately impacted, like service and retail.  While having a college degree is associated with higher income and more employment opportunities, a benefit of a degree extends well beyond that. “College helps individuals grow personally, socially, and intellectually. It offers opportunities to go beyond one’s own experiences, to meet people from different backgrounds, and to be exposed to new ideas,” said Powell. The “Crisis of Meaning” for Higher Ed and Possible Solutions While there are several barriers to students both deciding to get a college degree and completing it, there are solutions that can be implemented by both instructors and institutions to create a better understanding of why continuing education can help students in the long run. “College has a crisis of meaning that we must address directly with students,” said Matthew Sanders, Executive Associate Dean, College of Humanities and Social Science and Professor of Communication Studies at Utah State University. “We are not being very intentional about telling students what college is, why it matters, and what they can do with it,” he said.  The more valuable, relevant, and applicable the knowledge students acquire, the more their college degree is worth. To keep it relevant “we do need to tailor our curriculum in ways that better match these needs and teach these skills more explicitly,” Sanders noted. “We need to frame college differently, holding on to preparing students for careers, but making primary the need for them to become excellent learners in broad areas of learning.” One of the greatest challenges to college graduation is retention. According to US News and World Reports, as many as 1 in 3 first-year students won't make it back for their sophomore year. “Students need very meaningful academic experiences in the first year, or they won’t stay,” Sanders said. Students should see college as a process of becoming an educated person rather than a checklist to get a job, he added. By doing that, “So many of their struggles will become easier to address because they will see meaning in what they are doing.” According to Powell, another big obstacle for those who want to attend college is financial. Powell & Natasha Quadlin’s book Who Should Pay?: Higher Education, Responsibility, and the Public reports that Americans are well aware of the costs of college and the staggering debt that so many college students and their families have. They note that this is the reason why Americans increasingly believe that the government should take more responsibility in funding college. “If we want to encourage a college education, the best way to do that would be to eliminate the financial barriers to college that all too many Americans face.” Education benefits everyone. But education may not mean getting a college degree, “When we talk about college or higher education, it’s important to clarify that it’s not only about the bachelor’s degrees but also involves other certificates and degrees that individuals can earn beyond high school, such as technical certificates and associate degrees,” said Sophie Nguyen, Senior Policy Analyst, Higher Education at New America.  There are a lot of professions that are needed for a well-functioning society that don’t require so much time and investment in a four-year education. “And for many first-year students, this path better meets their goals,” Sanders added. That means there are other valuable and viable paths to positive socio-economic outcomes. “What is important is that everyone gets some kind of post-secondary training, education or credential. Education benefits everyone, but we need to make sure we are supporting all kinds of paths toward that end,” Sanders said. In all, there are many reasons students may decide to go to pursue college or another form of education -- from wanting the potential for a higher income, to deciding to learn a new skill. Sanders believes that education is not only relevant, but critical to our world’s future success. “The problems we are trying to solve in the world are complex. Twenty-first century job skills are those broad-based problem-solving skills that a college education gives you,” he said. You can learn more about the state of college enrollments, gain an understanding of the role that instructors can play in making courses feel worthwhile for students and get some ideas for making courses feel more relevant for students by watching this free webinar, featuring Nguyen, Powell and Sanders by clicking here. ... View more

The money saver students will love you for As an educator, you feel your students’ pain, because not so long ago you were in a similar spot. Flashback! – Whatever time, whatever age, whatever year it was, you made the conscious decision to further your education beyond your high school hallways and dive into higher education’s collegiate collective. The important, life-changing decision shaped the direction of your career and had an impact on where you are today. Between transportation, room and board, books and supplies, and the ramen noodle cups and pizza to sustain that all-night appetite, college was EXPENSIVE.   And it still is. In fact, tuition has risen 134% since 2002, according to US News data. Any additional cost is another zing on the student's wallet and may impact the student's lifestyle. Many instructors keep affordability in mind when considering resources for their students, while at the same time ensuring they get a quality educational experience. Many nickels and dimes, loonies and toonies, and all other forms of currency have been invested in these hopes and dreams. With digital innovation continuing to sweep the ed tech world, creative forms of teaching and learning have further developed the quality of education and grasp at the shortening attention span of students all over. But what works? For one, active learning. The teaching strategy has been making waves in supporting classroom engagement and knowledge retention for some time, but attention to it has increased significantly with the pandemic. It has been “student-tested, instructor-approved,” and there have been studies to back it up even in the higher education world. Although active learning has been proven to increase student performance, it can also come at a cost. So how can you balance affordability with proper pedagogy?   iClicker has partnered with many institutions across North America to help make this digital tool free for students through the Institutional Site License (ISL) program. Nicole Skwarek, a Specialist Manager in Enterprise Solutions at Macmillan Learning defined an ISL as a “centrally funded license of the iClicker student response platform. It allows instructors to use this type of technology [iClicker] in the classroom, while removing the cost burden off of students”.  iClicker is more popular than ever as a way to engage students. It has been used by more than 5,000 instructors and 7 million students in classrooms across 1,100 institutions. With that in mind, here are a few reasons why these site licenses can benefit students, administrators, and instructors alike: Students pay nothing out of pocket. Yup, you read that right. Engage and save has a nice ring to it! With an ISL, your institution covers the cost for students using the iClicker mobile app, allowing students to jump right into the class with their learning tool worry-free. One less concern to address during syllabus week! Institutional or Departmental Want to test out a site license? You can choose from an institutional site license or a departmental site license. With a departmental site license instructors and students from a certain department can use iClicker at no cost, in the same way an ISL can. Some colleges and universities try this route to dip their toes in the water first before going all in. Free iClickers = Increased Active Learning When institutions choose an ISL and remove the cost barrier, usage of iClicker significantly increases. This helps to increase student success and performance, as well as attendance. In this situation, everyone wins! On-Demand Training Don’t do any in-house training? Not to worry! A dedicated iClicker representative will be happy to provide you and your colleague's training, for both administrators and instructors, while supporting the implementation of all things iClicker. This includes Learning Management System (LMS) integration assistance. This is all pretty handy when getting set up at the beginning.  Ongoing Support So you had some training, but still have some questions? In addition to having a stellar support team, there is also an iClicker knowledge base to help answer any specific questions for students, instructors, and administrators!  Access to Usage Reports and Troubleshooting Tools Administrators who gleefully love data, we see you. Want to see who your power users are? Want to know what the usage on your campus looks like? We have tools that not only get you that data but also help you troubleshoot any questions you have on your campus.  Attend, Engage, Focus, Retain Dr. Kelly Noonan, lecturer for Economics at Princeton University, uses Princeton’s ISL for her course. Dr. Noonan teaches a large class, and when asked why she decided to use iClicker she responded, “[it] allows me to monitor attendance and understanding of the material presented during class. It also allows some interactive ‘games’ that make use of the material presented.”  The cost was a barrier for Dr. Noonan and her students, but thanks to her university’s ISL, it made for an easy choice. “Students are much more likely to attend lectures and they do respond to all polls during class.”  With iClicker, students can have their voices and thoughts heard while learning in real time. They attend their sessions, engage in the conversation, focus on the lesson, and strengthen their knowledge retention. Classrooms big and small have taught us that higher-level critical thinking and sharpened focus are a power duo born from active learning’s influence. With these tools may come some barriers, but here’s a question for educators all over: If students at your university could have free access to a tool that improves a student’s concentration and lesson recollection in and outside of class, why wouldn’t you try it out? ... View more

In the HBO Max series Julia, we are served a tantalizing account of the chef’s relationship with the legendary editor Judith Jones, who championed Julia Child’s work on what Jones rightly believed would become the definitive introduction to French cooking for home cooks in the U.S. The show conjures the glamorous life of an editor who spends her days in a New York office, pouring over a pile of typewritten manuscript, pencil in hand, and travels to Boston by train to test recipes with her favorite author in a cozy, Cambridge kitchen. Now that is a fantasy that anyone who ever grew up wanting to be an editor might dream about. Maybe aspects of publishing worked that way at some point? But as you likely guessed, almost everything about being an actual editor is different, especially now, and especially for those of us who work at an educational publisher. My career in publishing started at a small trade press, but I stumbled onto my dream job when I landed at Bedford/St. Martin’s because my favorite part of writing has always been revising. As an educational publisher, we get to ask instructors and students who use our materials what they think and how they work, and then we can actually make improvements based on what our customers need and want. Instructional content has to work in a learning ecosystem that is flexible enough to meet its users where they are. Digital content delivery is not new. Even Mastering the Art of French Cooking is now available as an ebook. (After all, cookbooks and textbooks are close relatives, designed to meet the needs of users with a range of expertise.) Publishers have created widely used quizzes, videos, tutorials, and games, on web sites and CD-ROMs for decades. We’ve seen multiple generations of learning management systems, software, and courseware launched and retired. However the rapid adoption of digital materials during the pandemic has accelerated the need to ensure digital elements—from assessment and interactives to instructional reading and video—work flawlessly together to support pedagogical goals. Editors design that content to support a variety of approaches to teaching, regardless of whether the content appears in an ebook, an assessment question, or a tutorial delivered in courseware. The added promise of digital delivery is that we can update content when needed, with an even tighter focus on the benefits to instructors and students. Instructors revise the content of their courses for many reasons–and more frequently than one might assume. In a recent large survey we conducted, over 70% of instructors in the Humanities report updating their courses to “reach students who are disengaged or struggling” at least once a term. Our research also indicates that instructors place a high value on connecting their courses to current events and developing a culture of inclusion for all students, and they are likely to update their courses regularly in order to do so. An editor not only ensures this important content is up-to-date and accessible (in all the ways) but also that it is informed by ever-evolving pedagogical practices and goals. The right idea or example delivered at the right moment for a learner could make a world of difference for someone who doesn’t understand how a class is relevant to them or believe that they can succeed in a course. That’s our hypothesis anyway. Like Jones in Julia, we want to get our hands dirty, plunge into the work of testing ingredients and learning with our colleagues. We are all motivated by learning, and even failing, unlearning, and relearning. Success requires us to question our assumptions, continually, and to do it collaboratively. Ideally we work in close, cross-functional teams; even within editorial, media editors, development editors, program managers, and program directors (once called “publishers”) all play specialized, important roles. Our colleagues in market development, marketing, sales, and product all contribute insights through the lens of their work that deepen our understanding and enable us to make better decisions. Surveys, reviews by peers, conference and campus conversations, classroom observations, sales’ feedback, and disciplinary research have long been part of how we develop an understanding of our customers. These days, as we collect new kinds of data and add new research methodologies to our toolkit, our methods are more aligned with those of our partners’ in UX, learning science, and the product team. As digital usage grows, we look for new insights, test new hypotheses, and develop a more nuanced understanding of what types of content best support students, and, more importantly, what is missing. The enduring not-so-secret ingredient in our collaborations, of course, is the role that our authors play in conceiving, testing, writing, revising, and revising (again) the content at the heart of our products. While their research and teaching experiences inform every aspect of our work together, it’s our authors’ creative energy and generosity that end up making an editor’s work engaging. So much of what I’ve learned from working with our authors has made me a better editor and colleague: Nancy Sommers’ advice about commenting on student writing, Elizabeth Wardle’s insights about writing in a new genre, Staci Perryman-Clark’s research on culturally relevant pedagogies, and Joshua Gunn’s guidance that audiences need visual breaks while listening. Our circle of collaborators is quite a bit larger than the one in Julia’s kitchen. Widen that table to include many more colleagues, all squarely focused on improving teaching and learning for the instructors and students who use our resources, and you begin to get a picture of what editors at Macmillan Learning do. ... 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

Textbooks and learning materials look a lot different than they did even 10 years ago. You might remember borrowing an old textbook from your high school and looking at the inside cover to see the long list of scribbled names of students before you who used that very same book. The book even had a peculiar, stale smell to it. Or perhaps you remember being in college, making a trip to the university bookstore to purchase or rent your course materials for the new semester. You went with excitement, eager to learn about what career possibilities lay ahead of you, and thought your materials might provide you with just the answers you were looking for. As you read, you may have been disappointed to find that many examples seemed to be about a similar person–someone who didn’t quite look like you or self-identify the way you did. You may have started to become discouraged and think to yourself, “Maybe people like me can’t become an engineer, a psychologist, a business executive,” or whichever profession you dreamed of. Representation matters. More importantly, positive representation matters. But what does that look like? At Macmillan Learning it not only means signing authors and producing course materials and tools in which students feel represented and reflected, it also means a mission of inclusivity that goes beyond course materials. Macmillan Learning LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group Recognizes LGBT History Month LGBT History Month was founded in 1994 by Rodney Wilson, a Missouri high school history teacher who came out to his students after teaching about the Holocaust and informing his students that he would have been persecuted because of his sexual orientation. Wilson recognized a lack of positive representation of LGBT people in the teaching of history, and he envisioned a month in which role models could be provided for LGBTQIA+ youth. The month of October was chosen because of other coinciding LGBTQIA+ affinity days during the month: National Coming Out Day on October 11 and the commemoration of the first and second marches on Washington for LGBTQ+ rights in 1979 and 1987. One of the highlights of LGBT History Month is the spotlight of a different LGBTQIA+ historical figure each day of the month. This includes highlighting the accomplishments of LGBTQIA+ people in sports, entertainment, science, politics, and many other professions. These individuals serve as role models for young LGBTQIA+ people who may not otherwise have known of a successful queer person in their industry or desired future career. Macmillan Learning’s LGBTQIA+ employee resource group, Proud@ML, participated this year by sharing its second National Coming Out Day storytelling project externally so that students can learn about the different roles that LGBTQIA+ people hold at an educational publishing company. Proud@ML hopes that doing so will encourage LGBTQIA+ youth to pursue whichever career path they aspire to. Macmillan Learning LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group Sponsors Book Donation For Proud@ML, positive representation means creating engaging and inspiring educational opportunities for colleagues to learn more about LGBTQIA+ people, their history, and the rights they’re still fighting for. It also means giving back to communities outside of Macmillan Learning and paving the way for young people to lead a more inclusive future. During this year’s Pride Month, Proud@ML invited all Macmillan Learning employees–including those who identify as LGBTQIA+ and those who are allies–to participate in the creation of Pride floats. Teams could submit entries in contest categories such as Best Incorporation of LGBTQIA+ History, Best Pride Photo, Best Group Float, Most Visually Creative, and Best Show of Pride. Submissions ranged from videos to photo collages and included participation from employees across the company including Susan Winslow, CEO of Macmillan Learning. All category winners received recognition and a small prize. But Proud@ML wanted to do something more for the Best Show of Pride category winner, which showcased student support from a local middle school in Austin, Texas, where one of Macmillan Learning’s employees has a family relation. Texas is one of several states with increased anti-LGBTQIA+ and legislation, which greatly negatively impacts LGBTQIA+ youth. Working with Project Open Books, a small nonprofit organization that is committed to improving and promoting access to age-appropriate LGBTQIA+ books and stories, Proud@ML sponsored a donation of 10 LGBTQIA+ inclusive books for this middle school to include in its library. Macmillan Learning employees delivered the books this October as a way to acknowledge and celebrate LGBT History Month and just in time for the new school year to get underway. Two of the books donated were What Was Stonewall? by Nico Medina and Resist: 40 Profiles of Ordinary People Who Rose Up Against Tyranny and Injustice by Veronica Chambers. Both exemplify the meaning and purpose of a month dedicated to the history and teaching of important LGBTQIA+ figures and rights movements. The other books donated included fiction titles featuring LGBTQIA+ characters in main roles, which Proud@ML hopes will help LGBTQIA+ students feel represented in the stories they read. Macmillan Learning and Proud@ML know that representation matters, which is why positive representation of all types of people remains a pillar of what they do and the content they create. ... 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 the time of year when the leaves begin to change color, the air gets a little cooler and Americans celebrate their favorite pastime -- watching sports. Fans take to the stadiums and TVs to celebrate what’s been called the “holy trinity” of American sports: football, baseball and basketball. Yes, the Houston Astros winning the World Series ends baseball for the year. But we still have the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), college football, and -- starting today -- women’s college basketball.   Sports is a big entertainment business in America, with a valuation of more than $80 billion in 2022 -- that’s more than the valuation of the film industry and more than double that of the music industry.  It may be much smaller than Wal-Mart, but when it comes to entertainment, sports triumphs over most everything. Within that, football is the top dog, with the NFL alone generating about $17 billion in revenue each year. But what is it that drives the economics behind sports? How do economic realities like scarcity, taxes, and spending impact their popularity? With the end of the World Series, we spoke to David Berri, Professor of Economics at Southern Utah University and David Berri, Professor of Economics at Southern Utah University author of Sports Economics to better understand how market forces may impact America’s favorite pastime. So… is there a link between payroll and performance? Why are some sports more popular than others? As it turns out, not all sports are created equal. Here’s what Professor Berri has to say. What role does economics play in the World Series? There is a prevailing sense that teams that spend the most win the most. For example, the World Series this year was contested between the Philadelphia Phillies (4th in MLB in payroll) and the Houston Astros (9th in MLB in payroll). Last year it was the Atlanta Braves (11th in MLB payroll) and the Astros (5th in MLB payroll). But in 2020, the team that spent the most (the Los Angeles Dodgers) ended up playing the team that spent the least (the Tampa Bay Rays). And back in 2015, the Kansas City Royals (13th in MLB payroll) took on the New York Mets (19th in MLB payroll).  In Sports Economics, we note that payroll does have a statistical link to team wins in Major League Baseball. But the link is somewhat weak. A team’s relative payroll (team payroll in a year relative to average payroll that year) only explains 16% of the variation in regular season winning percentage. And when we look at more recent data, we find exactly the same result. About 84% of the variation in team winning percentage is NOT explained by a team’s spending on talent. Rather, what players do on the field explains outcomes. The reason why salary doesn't explain pay is that teams can't predict performance (and there are impediments in the market). So we do know what explains outcomes after the fact.  Part of the reason for this outcome is that baseball has a number of restrictions on what some players can be paid (reverse order draft, a reserve clause for younger players, and a luxury tax on payrolls). But part of this is because baseball performance is not always easy to predict. Salaries are a statement about the future. And the future in baseball isn’t always known. For example, few would have guessed the Philadelphia Phillies – a team that wouldn’t even have been eligible for the playoffs last year – would be in the World Series! Why does a regular season NFL game get more interest than a World Series baseball game? The NFL generates about $17 billion in revenue. Major League Baseball’s revenue is about 60% to 70% of that total. So, one issue is baseball has a smaller fan base.  But it is also the case that given the violent nature of American football, the schedule length for the NFL is quite a bit smaller. An entire season is just 17 games. To put that in perspective, the Philadelphia Phillies will play at least 17 games in the postseason this year. And in 2020, both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays played more than 17 games in the postseason.  The immense popularity of the NFL coupled with the scarcity of games likely combines to make a regular season NFL game more popular than a Major League Baseball playoff game. Why is there such a discrepancy for women's sports as it relates to pay and interest? This is an entire chapter in Sports Economics, and I am writing a book on this subject. Many people (mostly men) want to argue that the differences simply reflect “the market”. But as noted in the textbook, the changes we have seen in women’s sports across time are not simply due to market forces. In 1972, Title IX was signed into law. This dramatically changed opportunities -and participation – in girls and women sports. Prior to this act, girls and women simply weren’t given the opportunity to play sports. In fact, there is a long history of girls and women being explicitly banned from sports. Beyond this history of discrimination, leagues like the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball receive billions of dollars in public subsidies. Even minor league baseball and soccer in the United States receive public subsidies. Women’s professional sports do not. We should also not forget that the male dominated sports media primarily focuses its attention on men’s sports. Minor league football – which has never been successful in the United States – still receives an immense amount of media attention despite never being able to create a fanbase. All of this tells a simple story. Women’s sports lags behind men’s sports because of a history of discrimination that continues today. This is not a story about market forces. It is a story about men choosing to promote and invest in men’s sports over women’s sports. David Berri is a sports economist and professor of economics at Southern Utah University. In addition to his Sports Economics textbook (Macmillan Learning), he is also the lead author of two books—The Wages of Wins (with Martin Schmidt and Stacy Brook; Stanford University Press) and Stumbling on Wins (with Martin Schmidt; Financial Times Press) and has had more than 50 papers accepted and/or published in refereed journals. In addition, he has written for the New York Times, the Atlantic, Time, Forbes, and numerous other popular media outlets. Berri has also served as president of the North American Association of Sports Economics (NAASE) and currently sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Sports Economics and International Journal of Sport Finance (the two journals in sports economics).  ... View more

I’m often asked when I think life at colleges will go back to “normal.” If “normal” means a return to what education looked like before the pandemic, I think the answer is that it won’t. But that’s a good thing for our industry and, more importantly, for students attending college now and in the years to come.  In many ways, how students attend college has changed. From where learning takes place to how students interact with their instructors to what student engagement looks like, the learning environment is very different than it was both pre -and during the pandemic. The rise of digital As an education and publishing services company, we have witnessed the gradual shift from print to digital materials and online learning. Although early student experiences with ebooks began as reading a simple .pdf, it has now blossomed into having access to a comprehensive suite of digitally interactive tools; many being created as digital-first products. As the offering got more sophisticated and the benefits of digital learning became more apparent, use increased.  The pandemic changed everything, though. In 2020, that gradual shift became immediate and something important happened along the way. Despite the challenging circumstances, more instructors began experimenting with their courses, learning new ways to support active learning and engagement. They used new tools and discovered an exciting way to enhance learning.  The importance of student engagement In 2020, engaging students in a new virtual environment was incredibly challenging. Many instructors were teaching a class full of blacked-out zoom screens, not knowing if students were learning or even paying attention to the material. Introverted students and students that didn’t have easy access to digital tools suffered. Further, the etiquette of how to ask a question during class, or how to best respond to instructor questions were not always clear.  Even though classes have moved into a hybrid offering, we continue to hear new questions from instructors with greater focus on issues of equity and learning pathways.  With the need for stronger engagement, for peer review for students in all locations, or even to learn new low stakes ways to assess knowledge, instructors are using features within Achieve (our digital learning platform) at a higher rate than ever before. We’ve also seen an increase in benchmarking student progress -- whether it be by using assessments, in-class polling with iClicker or new cross-disciplinary tools to drive and measure learning.  The return to campus During the pandemic, while many adjusted to and even thrived in an online environment, many students experienced an unhealthy isolation by learning in homes by themselves and not engaging with materials and classmates. Like many, they yearned for a return to normal; a more traditional college experience. We are slowly seeing a return to campus. Though it certainly looks different for every college, it's been great to see so many campuses filled with people and activity. I’ve heard from quite a few folks on our team that the energy, excitement and buzz among students and faculty is palpable. In-person learning and student activities hasn’t been quite this prevalent since the onset of the pandemic, and many -- including us -- have longed for the connections that come with face-to-face interaction. Not all campuses are running at full capacity, but what we’re seeing now feels like the best of the virtual and in-person experiences being used together for a hybrid experience. For example, being able to access instructors via virtual office hours has made attending college more accessible for many students and we’re seeing that trend continue despite in-person classes resuming. I believe that the new “normal” includes the best of both worlds. We’re getting back to more familiar routines and a healthier ability to connect, but what we’ve learned over the past few years can’t be ignored. I think that what we’re seeing happen in higher education is not unlike what we are witnessing in the workplace -- and some of the best solutions are taking a bit of the best from both worlds. Just like how employees are eager to see their colleagues, travel and host in-person gatherings, students are excited to be back on campus, with their one-time reluctance being replaced with excitement to get back to customary college activities. The lessons learned from the pandemic have allowed for space for both, and I believe there will continue to be a place for hybrid learning and the advantages it brings. ... 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

Now more than ever, faculty are considering the role they can play in preventing student misconduct and encouraging academic integrity. While each classroom and campus are different, there are steps that instructors can take to help create an environment that supports student success.  Ahead of the upcoming webinar, “Emphasizing Academic Integrity in Every Classroom” on October 19 at noon ET, Macmillan Learning spoke with two presenters, 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, about the state of academic integrity. The pair shared some misconceptions about academic integrity, their insights as to why students cheat, and offered suggestions about how to create the kind of classroom community that supports integrity. Both Albert and Roberts got their start in academic integrity through their work with students, though their paths there were different. Albert’s interest was sparked when she started working in the Teaching and Learning Center. Her work there created an interest in assessing student learning and leveling the playing field. Roberts' interest in the field of academic integrity began about 15 years ago, when she was hired as the assistant director for the Honor and Integrity System at Kansas State University. Prior to that, she had been involved in student affairs and development through the residential life programs.  “The reality is, there is  more opportunity than ever for academic misconduct,” Roberts said. Students’ “technical problems” uploading documents has become the new “my dog ate my homework” with more instructors hearing about problems like a computer uploading the wrong document or a camera that stopped working during proctoring. “Sometimes technology does mess up, but this seems to be a more common excuse recently,” she said. And while misconduct can be a problem, not all of it is intentional. Misconceptions about Academic Integrity One widely-held assumption by both faculty and administrators is that students who cheat always know they are cheating. According to both Albert and Roberts, this is not necessarily the case. Many times, students are not clear on what cheating entails. For example, students may believe that if the professor didn’t say work had to be done independently, it was safe to work together on an assignment, explained Albert.  To rectify this, instructors should clarify what the class rules are -- for example, whether it's okay to paraphrase, share work with peers, or look up answers. If an instructor expects a certain style of citation (APA, MLA, or AP), they should make that clear to students as well as offer resources where students can find more information about it. “One thing I say on repeat when I am talking to faculty is that academic integrity and the culture of integrity is not only on the students,” said Roberts. She believes it’s everyone’s role to create that culture. “If a faculty member is going to hold a student accountable, then they need to take time to make sure the student knows and understands what they should be doing or how they are to be doing it.”   According to Albert, students don’t cheat solely because they want to get a better grade; rather, a variety of factors can play a role. Students may not plan on misconduct, but instead take advantage of what they see as an opportunity -- like when they perceive that all students will get the same questions in the same sequence. Also, they may believe that “everyone cheats” and there’s no harm in it because it’s just what students do. Finally, students may suffer from imposter syndrome, and not feel that they belong, or face other pressures like financial, social, and familial stresses, or mental health challenges. Cheating Harms Learning: There are no two ways about it -- cheating harms learning. It’s an issue that Roberts tackles using three words in every presentation she gives on academic integrity: choice, learning, and promise. She believes that everyone has a choice about how they conduct themselves, and those choices impact those around us. Also, learning stops when there is an academic integrity violation because if someone else is doing their work or work is taken from online sources, students are not learning. She noted that having a solid foundation helps students to move through their learning. “When the cheating occurs, the foundation for future classes is weak,” she said. This can impact students’ promise for the future. But there are actions that instructors can take to stop cheating in its tracks. Albert cites building relationships and class culture as critical steps that instructors can take to help students realize that cheating is not the answer. In addition to discussing what cheating is and why it’s harmful, the pair notes that building a community within the classroom is critical. “When a student is invested in the class, cheating is less likely to occur,” said Roberts. One way to build both community and trust, as well as explain what cheating entails, is to create a contract with students. Doing so creates an awareness of the class rules and offers students a greater voice in areas like the kind of assignments they’d like to take on and the point values of assignments. “Speak in language students can connect with. Talk with them about what you want them to do and why it’s important, and then explain how misconduct hurts everyone,” Albert said. “When instructors give students a voice and create a connection to the work, they create a culture where students are invested in their success,” she added. One way to create that connection is to offer assignments that students can relate to or that are in some way related to their careers and interests. Explaining why particular assignments were chosen and are important can also help to curb cheating. “Connect the purpose of the assignment to something they want to learn for their future,” Roberts said. “Tell them regularly you are helping them prepare and improve their skills so they’ll be successful.” Roberts continued, “Helping the students understand why the material in the class matters, why the instructor cares about the class and them as a person, and why integrity matters in the classroom will help them realize that even if the class is hard, doing their own work is worth it.” Lastly, Albert recommended that instructors offer opportunities for students to practice their work before taking an exam, writing a paper, or working on a class project. She said, “This builds their confidence and gets them started on the work before it is due.”  To learn more about the state of academic integrity and get even more suggestions about how to support it in classes, register for the free webinar, “Emphasizing Academic Integrity in Every Classroom” on October 19 at noon ET. The webinar is part of Macmillan Learning’s professional development series for the education community focused on critical challenges for students and instructors.   ... View more

There are a lot of misconceptions about the relationship between psychology and science, and Dr. Mitch Prinstein is on a mission to change the hearts and minds of those that hold them. His passion for creating a better understanding of clinical psychology and teaching the science of mental health is aptly reflected in the many papers and books he’s written over the years. In his current role as Chief Science Officer for the American Psychological Association, he sets the science agenda and advocates for the application of psychological research, and in his role at Macmillan Learning, he’s a co-author of the popular Clinical Psychology title used in college courses.  At Macmillan Learning, we appreciate that the success of our textbooks and courseware is in large part due to our outstanding authors. We want to offer students and instructors an opportunity to get to know these extraordinary authors, whose remarkable careers and interests often extend far beyond higher education. For that and so many more reasons, we partner with authors like Dr. Prinstein, who dedicate their lives to their fields and are just as passionate as us in improving students’ lives through learning.  We spoke with Dr. Prinstein about his career, teaching and learning about psychology, what’s next in the field, how we can help fix the mental health crisis, and, of course, the revised edition of Clinical Psychology. Throughout our conversation there was a constant theme -- the importance of science and research in the field.  There was no one particular milestone or “aha” moment that inspired Dr. Prinstein’s career path, but two things helped it along the way: mentorship and observation. His early inspiration came from his own experience as a child and adolescent; Dr. Prinstein was attuned to and interested in how kids got along with each other and the different kinds of popularity that he observed. While he didn’t know it at the time, it was his first foray into the field. “When I began pursuing clinical psychology, I had no idea that my childhood observations were an area of scientific inquiry.”   Dr. Prinstein began his academic career as an assistant professor and later director of clinical psychology at Yale University. In his first academic jobs, he started every morning by reminding himself to have learning goals rather than performance goals. “I had to remember that mistakes and failures were the reason why it takes many years to get tenure.” An assistant professorship, he believes, is like a faculty-in-training program and there is a lot to learn along the way. He later became Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he also mentors students from the Clinical Psychology and the Developmental Psychology programs.   In his teaching roles, he was a consummate ambassador of the science of clinical psychology, and was known for his commitment to supporting the professional development of students. It’s that passion that drove him to take professional leave from his role at UNC and take on one as the Chief Science Officer for the American Psychological Association. Writing is Another Form of Teaching Throughout his career, Dr. Prinstein maintained a focus on the academic inquiries that had first inspired him, with critically-acclaimed research on popularity and its effects that has been called “eye-opening.” From course materials like Clinical Psychology (more on that book later) to trade books such as Like Ability: The Truth About Popularity, his goal is to open the world of psychology with academic, yet approachable, books that can be read by anyone -- whether they are studying psychology or are simply curious. For example, in Like Ability: The Truth About Popularity you’ll learn that people who pursue popularity based on status rather than likeability end up unhappy, and in Popular: Finding Happiness and Success in a World That Cares Too Much About the Wrong Kinds of Relationships you’ll learn different ways to build strong emotional appeal that help you stand out from the crowd and succeed. These are just some of the many takeaways. I was curious as to what drove him to become such a prolific writer. As it turns out -- it’s teaching.  “Writing is another platform for teaching,” he said. He enjoys it in particular because he can help people learn from his mistakes and can also help cultivate a love for the field of psychology. His own teachers made such a difference to him. In fact, he credits the opportunity to work with his “selfless and generous” graduate school mentors Dr. Annette M. La Greca and Dr. Anthony (Tony) Spirito as the inspiration for some of the most important milestones in his career. Through his work with them, he learned what it meant to be a psychologist and to have a service-oriented perspective.  He mentioned that in his own teaching, writing and research, he aims to be impactful and helpful, noting, “It's something I think about and work towards every day.” Dr. Prinstein believes strongly that his greatest accomplishments may be yet to come, as he seeks to continue to make contributions to the field and his students. “Writing has always been a way for me to help people learn from my mistakes,” he noted. By that he means that his career successes happened in spite of what he came into the field knowing, rather than because of it.  He wants students to know the things that he didn’t, and have awareness of the things he wished he knew. For example, when he was a grad student, he found that academic psychology was a complex field to navigate. “We learn a lot about how to do research, and if we’re lucky we learn how to teach a part of class. But those are such a small part of what careers in academic psychology include. We’re also mentors, we do admissions, hiring and grant writing and we work on running labs, which are like small corporations.” To help students navigate the complexities, he put together a manual with professional development advice, which turned into a mentoring book and professional development resources.  “We need to reboot the field of clinical psychology” With ongoing research, the field of clinical psychology is ever-evolving. Despite the fact that knowledge is obtained through verifiable evidence of behavior and mental processes, there are plenty of misconceptions -- primarily that it isn’t a science. There’s much that can be done within the field, the practice and by the education community to rectify that.  Dr. Prinstien believes that within the education community, there should be more emphasis on communicating the scientific basis that underpins clinical psychology, and that doing so has become increasingly important with the current mental health crisis. Further, he believes that mental health should be thought of in the same way as the other sciences, noting that there are proven and tested methods and approaches that have undergone clinical trials and new approaches that are based on what we understand scientifically. “For too long there’s been confusion in the public about how psychology has been depicted. And how much of what we do is in fact based on science,” he said. As the field looks towards creating better equity and helping with the mental health crisis, the models of how patients are treated needs to change. Dr. Prinstein noted that the current model is not sustainable over the long term, and doesn’t address the growing and changing needs of our society. “There’s more that can be done to reach people who need help,” he said. “Psychologists meeting one-on-one with patients alone will not get us to help as many people as needed. It won't create the equity we all care so much about when it comes to reducing mental illness.” But it’s bigger than just changing the treatment model. “We need to reboot the field of clinical psychology.”  For his part, Dr. Prinstein would like the field to explore how to help train providers to support people who may never go into traditional therapy. He believes that another question the field should be asking is how to better build prevention techniques, “so that things like media consumption and kids video gaming are providing skills and learning that help to actually prevent mental illness.” Additionally, he would like to see mental health be considered alongside physical health as part of an overall holistic perspective of health. “We should understand that the ability to work, be a parent, be a partner, take care of your body -- a person’s overall daily function -- is related to psychology.”  But change doesn’t happen overnight, and it can’t happen with just one person. Dr. Prinstein believes change is more likely to happen when an entire community is ready to make that change. “No matter how much blood sweat and tears you might put in, it really takes all the people that you're directing change towards to be open and willing to receive and participate in that change.” In his role as Chief Science Officer for the American Psychological Association he’s learned that while one person can make an impact within the field, it’s more commonly done with many different teams and perspectives. “If at the end of your work you can see your smudged fingerprints in a sea of thousands of other fingerprints that have helped to produce something or move something, then that's a job well done.” By sharing his knowledge of what it is, how it has evolved, and what it could be, there is an opportunity to teach people about what he calls “the most wonderful field in the world”. He believes that the new edition of the print and digital textbook offers a more modern take and helps to demystify clinical psychology. Prinstein believes that the more people recognize and care about mental health, and the scientific underpinnings of clinical psychology, the better off society will be. He also noted that when you demystify clinical psychology, you allow people to see themselves as being an important voice in the science or practice of it. “We want students to say ‘that’s something I can do,’” he said.  Importantly, he believes that writing course materials is “a great way to help people see clinical psychology in a multicultural and scientific framework from the start.”  He noted that the enhanced focus on inclusive practices and how the field can improve in supporting different communities was the part of the revision he’s most excited about. “We have a very direct, candid and important dialogue throughout the entire book about the limitations of clinical psychology and the opportunities to be more focused on equity, diversity and inclusion.” This dialogue can be found in a new podcast within Achieve for Clinical Psychology which features interviews with leading clinical psychologists who talk about their research and practice. He believes that the best is yet to come in the field, and hopes to inspire others to learn more about the field. “My hope is that everyone who takes the class and uses Clinical Psychology either becomes a clinical psychologist or becomes an ambassador of this knowledge.”  ... View more

Coming out is an extraordinarily personal journey that many LGBTQIA+ people embark on as an early step to living open and authentic lives. More than just an act of telling the truth about oneself, when someone comes out, they create visibility and claim space in the world. That is a radical and brave act that Macmillan Learning’s LGBTQIA+ employee resource group, Proud@ML, is happy to celebrate.  Today Proud@ML shared its second annual National Coming Out Day storytelling project, where employees once again had the privilege to share a bit of their lived experience of coming out from within Macmillan Learning. This year Proud@ML also made space for employees to share their perspectives on supporting a loved one’s coming out.  Each story is unique, and Proud@ML is so grateful to those who took the time to share their stories with us. Celebrate National Coming Out Day with us by learning more about our employees’ coming out experiences.  From our LGBTQIA+ identifying colleagues:  Why was it important for you to come out? “Coming out was important to me because I knew there were others like me (Mexican American gay men) and wanted to show them it is possible to be happy, loved, and even successful in predominately white straight spaces.” –Tony Villasenor, Senior Sales Rep “The first person I truly came out to was my dad. It was important to me that coming out was a deliberate decision. I grew up in the south, so in my mind coming out was taking the stance that my truth, life, and love were too important to suppress, even against the homophobic rhetoric that was so prevalent in my childhood.” –Calyn Clare Liss, Editorial Assistant How did coming out affect your sense of self or your understanding of your own identity? “Being an openly gay man allowed me to meet some of the most amazing people who helped shape me into the man I am today. Their love and affection gave me the courage to do things that would have scared me previously and it helped me become a more positive person overall.” –Jeffrey LeGrand-Douglass, Senior Specialist, Conference, Meetings & Events “I didn’t know how resilient, resourceful and capable I was until life threw some challenges at me that required me to rise to the moment. I am a bit of a gentle giant, I consider myself wise, and I am sharp-tongued. Those traits developed out of my coming out experience. I had been raised to understand that gay meant weak, different, even abnormal. I certainly didn’t accept that assertion and have fought hard against it.” –Anonymous  “When I first came out, I felt like I was a complete person for the first time. I was liberated from the exhaustion of compartmentalizing myself.” –Adam Whitehurst, Director of Media Editorial, Humanities, & Proud@ML Co-Lead If you could offer your younger self advice about coming out, what would that advice be? “Be yourself, and the friends and family who don’t accept that do not truly care about you and the ones who do are worth it!” –Indigo Carr, Editorial Assistant From allies at Macmillan Learning:  How did your loved one’s coming out affect your relationship with them?  “I believe we are stronger for it, and I have so much respect and awe for her. I see more confidence in her, more passion as she openly embraces her interests and talks about LGBTQIA+ media, and above all, she is so much happier than she was as a child, which makes me indescribably happy.” –Anonymous  “I think she is able to be her authentic self, which actually allows me to get along better with her compared to when we were kids. I get to better understand who she is and what she dealt with throughout her life.” –Sean Jenkins, Associate Digital Initiatives Specialist “I have experienced this with a handful of friends and family members. In each case, it definitely brought us closer. I felt extremely honored that they chose to come out to me and it really opened the door for deeper, more meaningful conversations about everything going on in their lives, not just their queerness.” –Heather Christian, Senior Content Production Manager Resources for Coming Out The Trevor Project – The Coming Out Handbook  GLSEN – Coming Out: A Resource for LGBTQ Students  PFLAG – Coming Out ... View more

Metacognition is thinking about ways to improve your own thinking and learning processes. And for students, the act of knowing themselves and seeking to improve their learning process can positively impact their success in college. Importantly, for students it’s an internal guide that recognizes their own strengths and weaknesses, that helps them plan to achieve their goals, and enables them to monitor if they are doing what it takes to be successful. Realizing that you might not be on the right path to achieving your goals and correcting your course of action?  That’s metacognition in action. Students want to excel in college. In fact, 48% strive to get an A in all their courses, according to a study in Spring of 2022 of more than 1,400 undergraduate students by Student Monitor. Some of the more common activities they participate in outside the classroom to get a better grade are participating in a study group, or meeting a professor, and watching online videos. Metacognitive and self-regulating behaviors help learners conceptualize their academic goals and then  identify the  tools and processes necessary to be successful. The act of regulating oneself as a learner is a critical area of focus in the company's recent grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. More broadly, the research will focus on how digital courseware can help to close equity gaps in course completion, retention, and performance rates for historically and presently underserved students. In this brief blog series about metacognition, we’ll explore how students' metacognition impacts their behavior and attitudes in the classroom and, more broadly, in college. It’s part of Macmillan Learning’s commitment to sharing knowledge about what we learn throughout our research. Next month we’ll explore how metacognition impacts behaviors (goal setting, study habits, asking for help) and attitudes (self-efficacy/confidence, grit/productive struggle, intrinsic motivation.) Learn more about Macmillan Learning’s partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ... View more