Promoting the Success of Individual Learners: Teachers Applying Their Craft at the Undergraduate Level

In the words of K. Patricia Cross, how do undergraduate programs simultaneously serve all students, as well as each and every student? Responding to the challenge of realizing this educational ideal, this book explores guiding assumptions and instructional strategies for individualizing instruction to support and extend the learning of diverse students. Assumptions and strategies are provided by experienced teachers from undergraduate institutions throughout the country, representing eight discipline areas. Discipline areas include literature, composition, mathematics, chemistry, physics, educational psychology, accounting, and an interdisciplinary freshman year course.

Chapters by contributing teachers are framed by four introductory chapters that establish the meaning of individualizing instruction, the nature of classroom learning, and provide a framework and set of general guidelines for individualizing instruction. Individualizing instruction is positioned at the intersection of two main premises: Talent Development as the most appropriate model of excellence for undergraduate education; and the reality of individual differences among undergraduate students, beyond demographic categories and learning-style taxonomies. Accepting these two premises, efforts by undergraduate teachers to work with students to create effective alternative learning/teaching paths leading to common curricular outcomes and standards becomes a critical factor in moving towards educational excellence.