This short video tells the story how in 1972 the Integrated Learning (IL) course was developed at the University of Minnesota to meet the academic and cultural transition needs of their TRIO Upward Bound summer bridge program students as they prepared to enter college. The IL course was an early example of a linked course learning community. A historically-challenging college content course such as Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology or Law in Society was linked with an IL course. The IL course is essentially an academic support class customized to use the content of its companion class as a context for mastering learning strategies and orienting students to the rigor of the college learning environment. The history of the IL course provides lessons for creating, sustaining, and surviving daunting campus political and financial challenges that could face any new academic or student affairs program. The TRIO program leveraged its modest budget and personnel for the IL course approach which flourished and withstood changing economic and political forces that could have terminated the innovative approach to academic support. Lessons from this history of creation, conflict, and survival could be applied to other programs in a postsecondary setting.
David Arendale’s Leader Identity Emergence of Study Group Facilitators Publication
This short video tells the story of a qualitative study at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, USA, investigated leader identity emergence of study group facilitators. There is a gap in the professional literature regarding study group programs and identity emergence of the student paraprofessionals who facilitate the study sessions. This study built upon previous studies of identity formation by integrating educational theories that help explain the changes that occurred. Peer study group programs are powerful co-curricular experiences. This study provided answers to why and how identity emergence occurs. The Leader Identity Development Model for peer study group facilitators was developed based on the findings from this study and other experiences with study group leaders over the past three decades by David Arendale to help predict this change and the experiences that supported identity formation. Among those catalysts were written reflections by the study group leaders throughout the academic term on what they learned about themselves and about their conversations with other study leaders and the study group program manager. Implications are provided that explain how peer programs can become a more transformative learning ecosystem. Peer learning programs present an untapped personal and professional development opportunity for student leaders that would be even more powerful if it were intentional rather than serendipitous.
David Arendale's Personal Faith Statement
As an educator, there is more to me than just scholarship, teaching, and public service or engagement. My personal faith in Jesus Christ provides a powerful motivation for expressing myself in scholarship, teaching, and public service or engagement.
David Arendale's Research and Knowledge Dissemination Statement
This short video my research interests in exploring academic access in postsecondary education and develops evidence-based strategies to increase the success of underrepresented student populations in college. I focus on filling the gap between scholarship that analyzes academic performance problems and proposed solutions to increase student outcomes. Access programs often operate at the confluence of academic affairs, student affairs, and enrollment management. This busy intersection of interests and needs has generated considerable turbulence for these programs. My multidisciplinary academic preparation and work experiences in academic affairs, student affairs, and enrollment management afford me unique tools for this investigation.