ABSTRACT
Teaching and Learning the West Point Way is a unique compendium of the best teaching and learning practices from one of the most celebrated and storied undergraduate teaching and learning environments and institutions in America – the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, USA.
Drawing on the broad academic curriculum that the students follow at West Point – in addition to military leadership, character development, and competitive athletics – this book describes proven and effective undergraduate pedagogy across a number of academic disciplines. Case studies, strategies and techniques, empirical teaching and learning research results, syllabi, and assignments developed and deployed by West Point faculty are included, which faculty in other higher education institutions can adapt and apply to their own programs and courses. An accompanying companion website provides additional syllabi, course guides, lesson plans, PowerPoint activities, and lecture slides, as well as videos of the editors and authors discussing how key concepts in their chapters might be applied in different teaching and learning contexts.
This is an opportunity to gain an in-depth insight into the programs and practices inside one of the world’s premier leadership development and educational institutions. It should appeal to new and experienced faculty and administrators interested in course creation and syllabus design across a wide range of disciplines in educational institutions and military academies across the globe.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |12 pages
Introduction
part |42 pages
Syllabi
chapter 2|6 pages
Infrastructure engineering
part |44 pages
Assignments
chapter 8|7 pages
An undergraduate project to develop statistical thinking and writing
chapter 9|6 pages
A proflective writing assignment in Advanced General Psychology for Leaders
chapter 10|7 pages
Harnessing storytelling to improve students’ scientific communication
part |95 pages
Teaching notes
chapter 13|9 pages
Synthesizing art, language, and history
chapter 20|6 pages
Using virtual battlespace classroom gaming simulations in the classroom
chapter 24|7 pages
Enhancing the foreign language classroom through experiential learning
chapter 25|7 pages
Deliberately integrating teaching, learning, and assessment
part |78 pages
Empirical articles
chapter 27|14 pages
Developing the cutting edge of assessment techniques
chapter 29|11 pages
Epistemic expressions of point of view in Russian
chapter 30|10 pages
The validity of the college entrance examination rank in predicting student success in chemical engineering
chapter 31|12 pages
An investigation on the effect of out-of-class assignments on student performance
part |41 pages
Interdisciplinary articles
chapter 33|10 pages
An interdisciplinary approach to student understanding of microbial diversity
chapter 34|14 pages
The impact of the vertical writing surface on teaching and learning in different disciplines
part |5 pages
Epilogue