Teaching and Learning the West Point Way: Educating the Next Generation of Leaders

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:
Syllabi 1. Military Leadership: Purpose, Direction, Motivation 2. Infrastructure Engineering: Appreciating the Art and Science of Our Built Environment 3. Armed Forces & Society: Thank You for (Y)our Service 4. Chemical Engineering Lab: Getting Results 5. Entrepreneurial Leadership: Shark Tank for Warriors 6. Officership: Developing Professional Knowledge, Identity, and Inspiration Assignments 7. The Ethics of AI in War: Digital Trigger 8. An Undergraduate Project to Develop Statistical Thinking and Writing: Iterating to Success 9. A Proflective Writing Assignment in Advanced General Psychology for Leaders: Letter to the Future Self 10. Harnessing Storytelling to Improve Students’ Scientific Communication: Narrating Science 11. Leadership in Combat Writing Assignments - In Extremis 12. The Intellectual Giant Model of Teaching: Sharp-shoot, Integrate, and Apply Teaching Notes 13. Synthesizing Art, Language, and History: Creating Empathetic Leaders of Character in the Foreign Language Classroom 14. Simulating Combat Modeling in Engineering: My Roommate Was Jealous 15. Tapping Feature Films for Classroom Debates: Transformational or Toxic Leaders? 16. Bringing the Thayer Method into the 21st Century: T21 17. Peer Assessment and Coaching: As Iron Sharpens Iron 18. Experiencing Social Class Inequality: Modified Monopoly 19. Preparing Students to Lead Productive Discussions: Discuss til they Drop 20. Using Virtual Battlespace Gaming Simulations in the Classroom: Searching for IEDs in Class 21. Making Leaders at the Group Level: The Cadet Company 22. Teaching Russian Political Discourse: Classroom Oral Presentation and Discussion 23. Enhancing Written and Oral Analysis in a Life Science Course: Literary Biologists 24. Enhancing the Foreign Language Classroom through Experiential Learning: Connecting and Reflecting 25. Deliberately Integrating Teaching, Learning, and Assessment: The Signature Work of the West Point Writing Program 26. Does Active Learning Translate into Actual Learning in Psychology?: Dog Day Empirical Articles 27. Developing the Cutting Edge of Assessment Techniques: Discovery Learning Assessments 28. Understanding Positive Change in Academic Performance: The Most Improved Student 29. Epistemic Expressions of Point of View in Russian: A Sample System of Classroom Activities 30. The Validity of the College Entrance Examination Rank in Predicting Student Success in Chemical Engineering: Predicting Academic Success 31. An Investigation on the Effect of Out-Of-Class Assignments on Student Performance: The Homework Tightrope 32. Memory Recall Exercises: Food for Thought Interdisciplinary Articles 33. An Interdisciplinary Approach to Student Understanding of Microbial Diversity: You Are What You Touch 34. The Impact of the Vertical Writing Surface on Teaching and Learning in Different Disciplines: The Writing's on the Wall 35. Staff Rides 2.0: Expanding on an Old Army Tradition Epilogue Teaching and Learning in a COVID-19 World

About the Author :
Morten G. Ender, Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of Diversity & Inclusion Studies, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership, U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Raymond A. Kimball, Chief of Faculty Development, U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Rachel M. Sondheimer, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Jakob C. Bruhl, Associate Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Review :
"This book encourages bridging between disciplinary areas to facilitate collaboration amongst faculty and to optimize opportunities for student learning. It is perfect for faculty development programs that aim to engage faculty in small interdisciplinary cohorts that can discuss course pedagogy and share effective approaches to course creation, syllabus design, and assignment development. The editors are uniquely qualified to promote the book’s interdisciplinary message based on a blend of expertise that cuts across various academic disciplines and the civilian and military faculty at West Point." Jeffrey B. Lovelace, Assistant Professor of Commerce, University of Virginia, United States of America. "This book is unique in that it covers military education and design ‘soup to nuts’—that is, from top-level design to lesson-plans, as well as overarching strategies. There are a significant number of military education institutions in the US and US-looking countries that would find this useful." Kristian Gustafson, Reader in Intelligence and Security Studies, Brunel University London, United Kingdom. "This volume’s combination of syllabi, assignments, and articles make it a unique and valuable resource for teachers from the secondary to the university levels. For educators who are willing to explore pedagogical practices applied in varied disciplines to see how they might adapt a given assignment or teaching technique in their own discipline/classroom, this volume stands out as a highly practical interdisciplinary work of scholarship." Ryan Kelty, Associate Professor of Sociology, United States Air Force Academy, United States of America.