Daren Snider | University of Nebraska at Kearney (original) (raw)
Papers by Daren Snider
COLLEGES and universities have for decades struggled with a constantly changing playing field in ... more COLLEGES and universities have for decades struggled with a constantly changing playing field in terms of external expectations and finding the resources to meet them. Funding sources are no longer as reliable as in the past; the costs of doing business as an institution of higher education have exploded; public opinion of the ivory tower is shifting; and student demographics—indeed the students themselves—have changed from the time when today's postsecondary leaders were joining the faculty ranks. Compounding those challenges is the economic uncertainty of recent years, making it not surprising that constituents of higher education more than ever before are demanding responsive organization, smarter administration, and more transparent accountability. In that environment, the use of strategic planning has become one tool in the administrative arsenal for coping with pressures on universities. Faculty members often hear about strategic planning on their campuses, but the process and the principles that underlie it remain unfamiliar to many. For that reason , broad consensus among faculty members about the value of strategic planning has not emerged. The term would seem to be self-explanatory, referring to a specific kind of short-and long-range planning. In order for us to understand its nature and potential usefulness, it is helpful first to differentiate strategic planning from conventional planning. Conventional planning involves making an evaluation of an organization as it exists in current form. A self-study, like those produced in advance of an academic unit review, is a typical element of conventional planning. The focus is on how the institution routinely responds to daily, monthly, and yearly challenges to keep itself running within the parameters of its mission and resources. For example, conventional planning might address how the office supply budget is usually spent, or it might specify protocols for how to design the department's semester schedule effectively. These somewhat pedestrian aspects of planning are mostly about " breaking down a goal or set of intentions into steps, " with little thought given to what the ultimate goals are and to whether the steps even make sense (Mintzberg 108). While conventional planning certainly has its place, the cautionary note is that it can become simply pro forma and ultimately unfruitful unless it is supported by long-range, creative thinking. In contrast to conventional planning, strategic planning is both self-reflective and projective and should culminate in a shared vision for the department and in working toward the achievement of that vision. Strategic planning has been practiced at the campus level in higher education for years and has an extensive literature examining and supporting it (e.g., Keller; Rowley, Lujan, and Dolence), but there has been little research on it at the academic department level (Fountoukidis, Hahn, and Voos) and none that I could find at the foreign language department level. This lack is unfortunate, because, just as strategic planning helps a university focus on its mission and channel its resources, it can also help a foreign language department deal with today's shifting patterns
Die Unterrichtspraxis/teaching German, 2008
The now-familiar term "communicative" is not used consistently in the foreign language teaching p... more The now-familiar term "communicative" is not used consistently in the foreign language teaching profession. VanPatten notes, for example, that textbook authors and foreign language instructors commonly use the term differently than do L2 scholars and researchers ("Perceptions" 925). The meaning of the term has evolved since the 1960s to 163 1 The author would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful observations on an earlier version of this article. 2 The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines for speaking were updated in 1999 and for writing in 2001.
COLLEGES and universities have for decades struggled with a constantly changing playing field in ... more COLLEGES and universities have for decades struggled with a constantly changing playing field in terms of external expectations and finding the resources to meet them. Funding sources are no longer as reliable as in the past; the costs of doing business as an institution of higher education have exploded; public opinion of the ivory tower is shifting; and student demographics—indeed the students themselves—have changed from the time when today's postsecondary leaders were joining the faculty ranks. Compounding those challenges is the economic uncertainty of recent years, making it not surprising that constituents of higher education more than ever before are demanding responsive organization, smarter administration, and more transparent accountability. In that environment, the use of strategic planning has become one tool in the administrative arsenal for coping with pressures on universities. Faculty members often hear about strategic planning on their campuses, but the process and the principles that underlie it remain unfamiliar to many. For that reason , broad consensus among faculty members about the value of strategic planning has not emerged. The term would seem to be self-explanatory, referring to a specific kind of short-and long-range planning. In order for us to understand its nature and potential usefulness, it is helpful first to differentiate strategic planning from conventional planning. Conventional planning involves making an evaluation of an organization as it exists in current form. A self-study, like those produced in advance of an academic unit review, is a typical element of conventional planning. The focus is on how the institution routinely responds to daily, monthly, and yearly challenges to keep itself running within the parameters of its mission and resources. For example, conventional planning might address how the office supply budget is usually spent, or it might specify protocols for how to design the department's semester schedule effectively. These somewhat pedestrian aspects of planning are mostly about " breaking down a goal or set of intentions into steps, " with little thought given to what the ultimate goals are and to whether the steps even make sense (Mintzberg 108). While conventional planning certainly has its place, the cautionary note is that it can become simply pro forma and ultimately unfruitful unless it is supported by long-range, creative thinking. In contrast to conventional planning, strategic planning is both self-reflective and projective and should culminate in a shared vision for the department and in working toward the achievement of that vision. Strategic planning has been practiced at the campus level in higher education for years and has an extensive literature examining and supporting it (e.g., Keller; Rowley, Lujan, and Dolence), but there has been little research on it at the academic department level (Fountoukidis, Hahn, and Voos) and none that I could find at the foreign language department level. This lack is unfortunate, because, just as strategic planning helps a university focus on its mission and channel its resources, it can also help a foreign language department deal with today's shifting patterns
Die Unterrichtspraxis/teaching German, 2008
The now-familiar term "communicative" is not used consistently in the foreign language teaching p... more The now-familiar term "communicative" is not used consistently in the foreign language teaching profession. VanPatten notes, for example, that textbook authors and foreign language instructors commonly use the term differently than do L2 scholars and researchers ("Perceptions" 925). The meaning of the term has evolved since the 1960s to 163 1 The author would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful observations on an earlier version of this article. 2 The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines for speaking were updated in 1999 and for writing in 2001.