Faculty engagement, successful student learning and social integration Dissertation

Faculty engagement, successful student learning and social integration - Dissertation Example According to Umbach and Wawrzynski (n.d., p. 21), teachers play the single most important role in the tendency of students to learn. New materials of teaching and learning have emerged as a result of the revolution in communication technologies. Consequently, the teaching and learning environment has been altogether renewed in a way that was not possible to achieve in the past. The fundamental challenge for the contemporary schools and colleges is to modify its environment so that new technologies can be accommodated and promoted at their best. Faculty engagement is one of the most critical elements in the modern pedagogy and learning that is influenced by technology. Different teachers join this profession because of different motivational structures that vary according to the tasks they are assigned (Blackburn, 1995). â€Å"Few institutions other than colleges and universities permit their members the latitude so much a past of the professor’s life† (Cahn, 1986, p. 3) . This latitude has been accommodated by the tradition-bound academy nature while the gradual change that has occurred in nearly every aspect of the campus life makes this latitude a tolerable piece of the landscape of academia. In a global democracy, higher education must give serious thought to structuring student learning and development in such a way to promote cross-cultural understanding and civic-mindedness. In strong democracies, people have to be able to listen to each other, to understand the places and interests of others in the community, and to achieve compromises and solve problems when conflicts occur. (Hurd, 2006, p. 4). Problem statement: Institutions require an enabling environment in order to change for good. Enabling environments constitute several factors that include but are not limited to reliable networks, universal access for students, increased opportunities with respect to consulting and training as well as a faculty ethos that tolerates falters and values experimentation. Learning spaces can both constrain and encourage students’ attitudes. A whole range of learning attitudes is displayed by the teachers and students particularly when the learning environment is developed with a view to optimize the interaction between the two both outside and within the classroom or when the atmosphere presents education as a â€Å"serious work† to the students and teachers (Hunley and Schaller, 2009). Lack of such preconditions makes the entrepreneurial activity for the self-starters quite cumbersome. Even the existence of such preconditions does not do much to ease the process of transformation. The first-wave of entrepreneurs mark the initial phase of transformation. These adopters tend to find adequate expertise or resources in order to implement their personal strategies for the incorporation of technology as a means of learning. The second wave that indeed concerns us the most is the perception of faculty of the new environment of learning as an opportunity rather than a threat. These teachers are generally wary of the advanced technology but are strongly committed to a high quality of learning. This divides the faculty into two groups, each of which is highly committed to quality learning but differ in their tendency to embrace the new technologies as well as their technical capabilities. Administrators make a big mistake by basing their