Concerned by ongoing debates about higher education that talk past one another, the authors of this book show how to move beyond these and other obstacles to improve the student learning experience and further successful college outcomes. Offering an alternative to the culture of compliance in assessment and accreditation, they propose a different approach which they call the Learning System Paradigm. Building on the shift in focus from teaching to learning, the new paradigm encourages faculty and staff to systematically seek out information on how well students are learning and how well various areas of the institution are supporting the student experience, and to use that information to create more coherent and explicit learning experiences for students. The authors begin by surveying the crowded terrain of reform in higher education, and proceed from there to explore the emergence of this alternative paradigm that brings all these efforts together in a coherent way. The Learning System Paradigm presented in chapter two includes four key elements—consensus, alignment, student-centeredness,and communication. Chapter three focuses upon developing an encompassing notion of alignment that enables faculty, staff, and administrators to reshape institutional practice in ways that promote synergistic, integrative learning. Chapters four and five turn to practice, exploring the application of the paradigm to the work of curriculum mapping and assignment design. Chapter six focuses upon barriers to the work and presents ways to start and options for moving around barriers, and the final chapter explores ongoing implications of the new paradigm, offering strategies for communicating the impact of alignment on student learning. The book draws upon two recent initiatives in the United States: the Tuning process, adapted from a European approach to breaking down siloes in the European Union educational space, and the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP), a document that identifies and describes core areas of learning that are common to institutions in the US. Many of the examples are drawn from site visit reports, self-reported activities, workshops, and project experience collected by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) between 2010 and 2016. In that six-year window, NILOA witnessed the use of Tuning and/or the DQP in hundreds of institutions across the nation. Sponsored by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)

Concerned by ongoing debates about higher education that talk past one another, the authors of this book show how to move beyond these and other obstacles to improve the student learning experience and further successful college outcomes. Offering an alternative to the culture of compliance in assessment and accreditation, they propose a different approach which they call the Learning System Paradigm. Building on the shift in focus from teaching to learning, the new paradigm encourages faculty and staff to systematically seek out information on how well students are learning and how well various areas of the institution are supporting the student experience, and to use that information to create more coherent and explicit learning experiences for students. The authors begin by surveying the crowded terrain of reform in higher education, and proceed from there to explore the emergence of this alternative paradigm that brings all these efforts together in a coherent way. The Learning System Paradigm presented in chapter two includes four key elementsaEURO"consensus, alignment, student-centeredness,and communication. Chapter three focuses upon developing an encompassing notion of alignment that enables faculty, staff, and administrators to reshape institutional practice in ways that promote synergistic, integrative learning. Chapters four and five turn to practice, exploring the application of the paradigm to the work of curriculum mapping and assignment design. Chapter six focuses upon barriers to the work and presents ways to start and options for moving around barriers, and the final chapter explores ongoing implications of the new paradigm, offering strategies for communicating the impact of alignment on student learning. The book draws upon two recent initiatives in the United States: the Tuning process, adapted from a European approach to breaking down siloes in the European Union educational space, and the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP), a document that identifies and describes core areas of learning that are common to institutions in the US. Many of the examples are drawn from site visit reports, self-reported activities, workshops, and project experience collected by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) between 2010 and 2016. In that six-year window, NILOA witnessed the use of Tuning and/or the DQP in hundreds of institutions across the nation. Sponsored by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)

An engagement with the huge growth in neomedievalism forms the core of this volume, with other essays testing its conclusions. The focus on neomedievalism at the 2007 International Conference on Medievalism, in ever more sessions at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, and by many recent or forthcoming publications has left little doubtof the importance of this new, provocative area of study. In response to a seminal essay defining medievalism in relationship to neomedievalism [published in volume 18 of this journal], this book begins with seven essays definingneomedievalism in relationship to medievalism. Their positions are then tested by five articles, whose subjects range from modern American manifestations of Byzantine art, to the Vietnam War as refracted through non-heterosexual implications in the 1976 movie Robin and Marian, and versions of abjection in recent Beowulf films. Theory and practice are thus juxtaposed in a volume that is certain to fuel a central debate in not one but two of the fastest growing areas of academia. Contributors: Amy S. Kaufman, Brent Moberley, Kevin Moberley, Lesley Coote, Cory Lowell Grewell, M.J. Toswell, E.L. Risden, Lauryn S. Mayer, Glenn Peers, Tison Pugh, David W. Marshall,Richard H. Osberg, Richard Utz

Food Choice and the Consumer fulfils two needs. First, it captures the inter-disciplinary aspects of food choice and advocates an appreciation for other perspectives on the subject in an attempt to discourage some of the disciplinary parochialism which surrounds this area. Second, it accom modates a range of different approaches to domestic food choice in a coherent way by encouraging the reader to see food choice as comprising a set of key tasks, such as shopping, preparing, cooking, etc. Further more, it illustrates the way in which the antecedents of choice vary according to which stage in the 'decision process' the 'enigmatic' con sumer finds him or herself. Food Choice and the Consumer is written for a wide audience including: academics and students interested in food related topics; policy makers, nutritionists and health educators striving to improve the nation's diet; food manufacturers and retailers keen to gain an insight into some of the underlying motivations, concerns and constraints on consumers' food choice. This is not about specific brands, but about consumers and the many factors that influence their choice. Rather than an ABC of food choice, this book aims to stimulate interest while offering the commercial sector, suffering from increasing competition and brand myopia, a fresh perspective on consumer food choice. I hope that this book will con tribute to the ongoing debate on food choice and bring us a little closer to understanding how and why consumers choose food."

An engagement with the huge growth in neomedievalism forms the core of this volume, with other essays testing its conclusions. Following on from previous issues, this volume continues to explore definitions of neomedievalism and its relationship to traditional medievalism. In four essays that open the volume, Harry Brown, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, David W. Marshall, and Nils Holger Petersen underscore the elusive nature of distinctions between the two fields, particularly when assessing contemporary film, music, and electronic media. Seven articles then test the need for these distinctions, on subject matter ranging from Sir Walter Scott as a historian; M. E. Braddon's gendered medievalism; friendship models in Mary Elizabeth Haweis's Chaucer for Children; Jorge Luis Borges's Northern interests; medieval practices in Ellis Peters's Cadfael novels; innovative exhibits at the Museum of Wolframs-Eschenbach; and Celtic patterns in modern tattoos. Theory and practice are thus juxtaposed once again in a volume that is certain to fuel a central debate in not one but two of the fastest growing areas of academia. Contributors: Harry Brown, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, David W. Marshall, Nils Holger Petersen, Mark B. Spencer, Megan L. Morris, Karla Knutson, Vladimir Brljak, Alan T. Gaylord, Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand, Maggie M. Williams

Beginning in 1976, with the first issue of the journal ""Studies in Medievalism"", all things medieval and the concept of medievalism became a hot topic in culture studies. ""Medievalism"" examines how different groups, individuals or eras use and shape the image of the Middle Ages, differentiating between historical knowledge of the Middle Ages and what we have made the period out to be. The 14 essays in this book explore the medieval invasion of today's media and consider the various ways - from film and print to websites and video games - that the Middle Ages have been packaged for consumption. Essays encompass diverse theoretical perspectives and are grouped loosely around distinct functions of medievalism, including the exposure of recent social concerns; the use of medieval images in modern political contexts; and the medieval's influence on products of today's popular culture. The legitimization of the study of medievalism and the effect of medievalism on the more traditional subject of medieval studies is also discussed.

The Southern gardener's landscape plant selection guide. A picture is worth a thousand words. Every page is full of color photos of some of the best landscape plants for USDA Hardiness Zones 8-9. Organized by categories such as trees, shrubs, seasonal color, etc. A valuable tool to both home gardeners and to those who sell plants and landscaping, such as commercial landscapers and garden center personnel. You will spend thousands of dollars on plants. Invest in this guide and its companion, Volume I.