These practices involve creating active learning contexts, which can take a number of different forms depending on individual students and institutional resources. They usually require learners to invest a considerable amount of time and energy over an extended time, but have unusually positive impacts on student engagement, persistence, and educational outcomes. Examples include first-year seminars and experiences, guided internships, service and community-based learning, supported undergraduate research, and writing-intensive courses or projects.
Published in Chapter:
Capstone Experiences: Cultivating the Positive in Undergraduate Scholarship
David Starr-Glass (SUNY Empire State College – Prague, Czech Republic)
Copyright: © 2018
|Pages: 11
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5667-1.ch002
Abstract
Capstone experiences were originally incorporated into the curriculum to provide students with an opportunity for reviewing, consolidating, and integrating their undergraduate learning and to serve as a cap for the degree program or a bridge to future graduate and professional work. Capstone experiences are recognized as high impact educational experiences and provide a significant opportunity for promoting a positive disposition towards future scholarship and disciplinary research. This chapter traces the evolution of capstones, stresses their bridging role between undergraduate and graduate life, and suggests ways in which faculty can use them to stimulate professional development, continuing personal growth, and lifelong learning among their senior students. In particular, this chapter considers the merits of capstones from the perspectives of positive scholarship and appreciative inquiry.