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  Spirituality in Higher Education: Autoethnographies

  Heewon V. Chang, Drick Boyd, Eileen O'Shea, Roben Torosyan, Tracey Robert, I. Haug, and Betsy Bowen

  Roben Torosyan is a contributing co-author (with Eileen O'Shea, Tracey Robert and Betsy Bowen), " Spirituality & Professional Collegiality: Espirit de 'Core'", Chapter 5.

  Book description: This collection of articles explores how a wide range of academics-- diverse in location, rank and discipline-- understand and express how they deal with spirituality in their professional lives and how they integrate spirituality in teaching, research, administration, and advising. The contributors also analyze the culture of academia and its challenges to the spiritual development of those involved. Twenty chapter authors--from a variety of faith traditions--discuss the ways in which their own beliefs have affected their journeys through higher education. By using an autoethnographic, self-analytical lens, this collection shows how various spiritualities have influenced how higher education is understood, taught and performed. The book will stimulate debate and conversations on a topic traditionally ignored in academia.- Publisher description

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  Integral education: New directions for higher learning

  Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, Jonathan Reams, Olen Gunnlaugson, and Roben Torosyan

  Roben Torosyan is a contributing author, "Teaching Integratively: Five Dimensions of Transformation".

  Book description: Leading researchers and practitioners explore the frontiers of education from an Integral perspective.The educational challenges faced today are driving us toward a new step in the evolution of educational theory and practice. Educators are called to go beyond simply presenting alternatives, to integrating the best of mainstream and alternative approaches and taking them to the next level. Integral Education accomplishes this by bringing together leading researchers and practitioners from higher education who are actively exploring the frontiers of education from an integral perspective. It presents an overview of the emerging landscape of integral education from a variety of theoretical and applied perspectives. Key characteristics of integral education include exploring multiple perspectives, employing different pedagogical techniques (e.g., reflective, dialogical, empirical), combining conceptual rigor with embodied experience, drawing on developmental psychology, and cultivating a reflective and transformative space for students and teachers alike. Integral Education provides the most comprehensive synopsis of this exciting new approach and serves as a valuable resource for any integral effort within education. - Publisher description

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  Designing courses for significant learning: Voices of experience: New Directions in Teaching & Learning, 119

  D. Fink, A. K. Fink, Roben Torosyan, and Marice Rose

  Roben Torosyan and Marice Rose are contributing authors, "Integrating big questions with real world applications: Models from art history and philosophy", p. 61-70.

  Book description: Higher education today is being called on to deliver a new and more powerful kind of education, one that prepares students to be more engaged citizens, better equipped to solve complex problems at work and better prepared to lead meaningful lives individually. To respond to this call, teachers in colleges and universities need to learn how to design more powerful kinds of learning into their courses. In 2003, Dee Fink published a seminal book, Creating Significant Learning Experiences, that offered teachers two major tools for meeting this need: the Taxonomy of Significant Learning and the model of Integrated Course Design. Since that time, educators around the world have found Fink s ideas both visionary and inspiring. This issue of New Directions for Teaching and Learning contains multiple stories of how college-level teachers have used these ideas in a variety of teaching situations, with subject matter ranging from the sciences to the humanities. Their conclusion? The ideas in Fink s book truly make a difference. When used properly, they lead to major improvements in the level of student engagement and the quality of student learning! This is the 119th volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series New Directions for Teaching and Learning, which offers a comprehensive range of ideas and techniques for improving college teaching based on the experience of seasoned instructors and the latest findings of educational and psychological researchers. - Publisher description

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  Stephen Colbert and philosophy: I am philosophy (and so can you!)

  Aaron Allen Schiller and Roben Torosyan

  Roben Torosyan is a contributing author, "Things that make you go “what?”, p. 29-49).

  Book description: In Stephen Colbert's recent commencement address at Princeton University, he told the graduates not to change the world. And on the very first episode of The Colbert Report, he coined the term "truthiness," which means "not what is true, but rather what feels true." (The American Dialect Society subsequently voted "truthiness" 2005 Word of the Year, joining the august ranks of "plutoed," "red state," and "metrosexual.") Stephen Colbert, both the man and his body of work, represents a particularly rich set of philosophical issues. For one, the concept of truth is central to all branches of philosophy, and the very idea that someone is promoting (even if only satirically) the truthy over the truth raises a whole host of philosophical concerns: Has truthiness taken the place of truth? Is it all just truthiness, anyway? Colbert has coined other terms that scintillate philosophers as well, such as "Wikiality" (a reality determined by human agreement as opposed to something more objective) and "Freem" (freedom without the do). No doubt about it, philosophers love Colbert, who majored in philosophy at Hampden-Sydney College, and not only because he plays with concepts that are central to philosophy in his comedy. In addition, he is a pop-culture phenomenon worthy of philosophical interest in his own right. For instance, what does it mean for the state of political and cultural discourse in America that Colbert, a faux-pundit openly mocking the Fox News and CNN pundits, is so popular? Does Colbert add anything positive to that discourse, or is he just a cynical force with no positive impact? Stephen Colbert and Philosophy is crammed with thoughtful and amusing chapters, each more profound than all the others, all written by philosophers, and all focused unwaveringly on the topic of Stephen Colbert. Although most of the discussion is centered around his Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report, his best-selling book I Am America (And So Can You!) is not neglected, nor are his public performances. Indeed not! You’ll find at least a few choice paragraphs examining Colbert's incendiary 2006 White House Press Correspondents' Dinner, where he said of President Bush, "I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers, and rubble, and recently flooded city squares." In a similar manner, Stephen Colbert and Philosophy stands for things. Things you will want to know, or at least know of, generally speaking. Read it today, and you too will proudly proclaim: "I am Philosophy (And So Can You!)" -- Publisher description.

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  The learning portfolio: Reflective practice for improving student learning 2nd Ed.

  John Zubizarreta, Stephanie L. Burrell Storms, Laurence Miners, Kathryn Nantz, and Roben Torosyan

  Laurence Miners, Kathryn Nantz, Roben Torosyan and Stephanie Burrell are contributing co-authors, "Getting started with portfolios: A vision for implementing reflection to enhance student learning", Chapter 6 p. 85-95.

  Book description: The learning portfolio is a powerful complement to traditional measures of student achievement and a widely diverse method of recording intellectual growth. This second edition of this important book offers new samples of print and electronic learning portfolios. An academic understanding of and rationale for learning portfolios and practical information that can be customized. Offers a review of the value of reflective practice in student learning and how learning portfolios support assessment and collaboration. Includes revised sample assignment sheets, guidelines, criteria, evaluation rubrics, and other material for developing print and electronic portfolios. -- Publisher description.

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  The Daily Show and philosophy: Moment of Zen in the art of fake news

  Jason Holt and Roben Torosyan

  Roben Torosyan is a contributing author, "Public discourse and the Stewart model of critical thinking", p. 107-120.

  Book description: An entertaining and insightful examination of the Emmy-award winning American satirical news show, broadcast on Comedy Central in the US, and (in an edited edition) on More4 in the UK and CNN International around the world. * Includes discussion of both The Daily Show and its spin-off show, The Colbert Report * Showcases philosophers at their best, discussing truth, knowledge, reality and the American Way * Highlights the razor sharp critical skills of Jon Stewart and his colleagues * Faces tough and surprisingly funny questions about politics, religion, and power head on. - Publisher description.

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  Learning community: finding common ground in difference

  Patricia E. Calderwood

  Community is an important ingredient of successful schools, yet it is a more complex topic than is portrayed in current discourse. In this engaging volume, Patricia Calderwood explores multiple layers of educational communities and the conditions that inspire their resilience and growth. Confronting the inherent fragility of community, she also provides hopeful discussion about the ways communities can become responsive, and subsequently resilient, to vulnerabilities. Using the backdrop of different schools, Calderwood depicts community as a process rather than a commodity and illustrates how notions of community evolve locally and distinctly. Calderwood addresses issues of identity, leadership, voice, and normative forces in the lives of ordinary people as she engages readers in this important and timely analysis. -- Publisher description.

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  Talking across boundaries: Participatory Evaluation Research In An Urban Middle School

  Michelle Fine and Patricia E. Calderwood

  Patricia Calderwood is a contributing author, "The decision dance" and "A Day in the life of Crossroads: two teachers at work".