Risk-Taking in Higher Education

Ryan Kelty is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Washington College. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences & Leadership at the United States Military Academy, and was an Instructor and Research Associate at the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland.

Risk-taking is foundational to the structure and goals of higher education. Encouraging students to consider new, diverse, even uncomfortable ideas is needed to develop a critically informed view of the world and establish one's own values and beliefs. Yet, students and parents are increasingly averse to risk-taking in higher education; a shift evidenced by calls for colleges and universities to provide an education that shelters students from diverse and potentially controversial ideas and topics. This tension over the necessary role of risk-taking in higher education represents a critical moment for American education.This volume includes authors from numerous academic disciplines to emphasize both the importance of risk-taking across higher education and to highlight the varied approaches to incorporate risk-taking into classroom practices. The authors' collective works in this volume reaffirm the critical need to reject intellectual coddling and commodification in the college classroom, and to promote intellectual risk-taking as an essential aspect of higher education. Sustained, systematic emphasis on risk-taking in higher education is key to promoting innovation, critical thinking, life-long learning, and moral-ethical development.

Introduction: The Importance and Challenge of Risk-Taking in Higher EducationRyan Kelty and Bridget A. BuntenSECTION I: SOCIAL SCIENCESChapter 1: Flipping the Risk-Reward Associated with Flipped ClassroomsSarah Raley and Gretchen Kreahling McKayChapter 2: The Importance of Risk-Taking to Moral-Ethical Character DevelopmentArthur Gibb, IIIChapter 3: Falling Through the Looking Glass: Personalizing Privilege to Foster Understanding of the Social Nature of StratificationRyan Kelty and Bridget A. BuntenChapter 4: The Consciousness Raising Classroom: Lessons in Inequality and IdentityJessica Santos, Rachel Steele, and Callie Watkins LiuSECTION II: HUMANITIES & FINE ARTSChapter 5: InterventionsBenjamin Zellmer BellasChapter 6: Disability and Activism in the Engaged ClassroomJulianne GuillardSECTION III: NATURAL SCIENCESChapter 7: From Comfort to Confidence: Modeling Science as a Process of Risk-Taking in the ClassroomAaron R. Krochmal and Timothy C. Roth, IIChapter 8: Risk-Taking in Engineering Instruction (United State Air Force Academy)Kimberly Kays, Andrew Hoisington, John Christ, Don Rhymer, Dan Jensen, and Cory CooperChapter 9: Risk-Taking in Medical Education, Training, and the Practice of MedicineBala AmbatiConclusion: The Risk-Taking ImperativeRyan Kelty and Bridget A. BuntenAbout the EditorsAbout the ContributorsIndex