Tag: ACUHO-I Resident Educational Services

“Addressing those aspects of residential life that promote personal growth, community building, and student advising, this competency is grounded in student development research, theories, and models exploring how college students grow and develop. It includes academic initiatives that integrate the academic experiences of students with their on-campus residential experiences, including the broad scope of residential academic support, living-learning programs, residential colleges, residential curriculum tutoring, peer mentoring programs, and other initiatives. In addition, it includes programs and services to train, supervise, and advance the role of undergraduate student leaders who serve as live-in resident assistants.”

What are Intentional Conversations and Why Should You Use Them in Residential Education?

Intentional Conversations

Intentional Conversations are one-on-one meetings between student staff and their residents guided by a suggested set of questions and prompts that are developmentally appropriate and situated within the context of a resident’s experience. This post is one of a multi-part series examining and providing suggestions for residence life and education departments that utilize Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →

4 Documents that Place “Student Learning” at the Core of Residential Education

Do you view yourself as an educator?

One of the primary roles of residence life professionals is to advance student learning. But given the myriad of hats and tasks that housing and residence life professionals take on, it can sometimes become lost in the mix. It requires professionals to remain vigilant. When developing educational plans, writing position descriptions, and training staff, these processes should be constantly... Continue Reading →

ResLife Myth #3: Community Happens… Magically

Res Life Myth

Roompact "Perspective" posts are opportunities for individual staff members to work out ideas and provide their individual thoughts and opinions on a given topic. Believing that community building happens naturally and doesn't require intervention is a myth. This "myth" is often not one that is widely believed by most professionals that work in residence life,... Continue Reading →

Why Words Matter in a Residential Curriculum

words coming out of a head

When thinking about my own experience in developing a residential curriculum, I’m reminded of a wordsmithing session I had with some colleagues. We were attempting to set some broad learning goals for our curriculum and we wanted to ensure that our language encouraged critical reflection but also allowed for a diversity of viewpoints. It took... Continue Reading →

Does Your Residential Curriculum Cascade?

Cascading waterfall

An important concept in developing intentional learning experiences for students is the idea of the "cascade." Much like the successive steps of a waterfall, as water flows from one plateau to another, learning goals and outcomes in a residential curriculum should flow from more general statements of educational priority down to more specific and measurable... Continue Reading →

Beyond Bloom: Writing Progressive Learning Objectives

Blooms Taxonomy

One of the bedrock concepts of designing residential curricula and learning plans is the ability to write effective learning objectives. Writing effective and measurable learning objectives, however, is often more difficult than it may seem. The deeper one delves into learning theory and curricular design, the more nuanced one realizes these concepts are. One of... Continue Reading →

Hiring Professional Staff for a Residential Curriculum

Hiring

When transitioning your residence life program to a residential curriculum model, it becomes increasingly important that you hire professional staff with the requisite skills and competencies to enact the curriculum. Although these skills are desirable in any residence life professional, they take on added importance in a residential curriculum. Some of the competencies required of staff... Continue Reading →

5 Strategies for Promoting Student Learning

5 strategies for promoting student learning

For the past two decades, important documents such as the Student Learning Imperative and Learning Reconsidered have advocated for placing student learning at the core of our work in student affairs and residence life. Although on its surface this may seem to be a relatively easy task to accomplish, it actually represents a process that... Continue Reading →

Which of the Residential Curriculum Elements are the Hardest to Achieve? And Why?

Difficulty

The Residential Curriculum Institute defines a curriculum as having 10 "Essential Elements." These are the features and principles that a residence life department's educational program should adhere to if it is to be considered a "true" residential curriculum. In 2013, while in my PhD program, I conducted some research on schools implementing this curricular approach. I wanted to find out... Continue Reading →

What Is and Why Attend ACPA’s Institute on the Curricular Approach (Residential Curriculum Institute)?

ICA Institute on the Curricular Approach Logo

The Institute on the Curricular Approach (formerly the Residential Curriculum Institute) is a professional development opportunity offered by ACPA-College Student Educators International. The Institute provides an overview and training on how to start and grow a residential curriculum and, since its inception, has drawn thousands of participants from across the United States and around the world. The Institute is the only event of... Continue Reading →

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