Bruce authors new book on learning beyond the classroom walls

Chip Bruce
Chip Bruce, Professor Emeritus

Professor Emeritus Chip Bruce has authored a new book that examines the future of education. In Beyond the Classroom Walls: Imagining the Future of Education, from Community Schools to Communiversities, which was recently published by Rowman & Littlefield, he asks readers to adopt "a critical and comprehensive view of education" that transcends the classroom. According to Bruce, our educational systems are organized in ways that complicate the integration of online learning, schools, and learning through work.

"We have elaborate systems of formal instruction––academies, schools, universities, and training institutes––all to facilitate learning within the walls," said Bruce. "At the same time, we have ample opportunities for learning in the wild. Unfortunately, these systems diverge to the point that they do little to support learning that allows us to draw from both of the realms of knowledge."

Bruce received his BA in biology from Rice University and PhD in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to his semi-retirement in 2011, he had appointments in Education, Bioengineering, the Center for Writing Studies, and the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Illinois. His work has focused on inquiry-based learning, community inquiry, and the information and communication practices that help people in communities learn and work together.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Education of Things named a SHARP Book Prize finalist

A book by Associate Professor Elizabeth Hoiem, The Education of Things: Mechanical Literacy in British Children's Literature, 1762-1860, has been named a finalist for the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) Book History Book Prize. 

Elizabeth Hoiem

Debnath datafies "The Bulletin"

MSIM student Tan Debnath, whose interests span data mining, statistical modeling, text mining, and digital humanities, joined the Center for Children's books as a research assistant. He was tasked with building curation processes that would datafy seventy-five years' worth of archival issues of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, one of the nation's leading children's book review journals.

Tan Debnath stands casually with his hands in his pockets and smiles broadly at the camera. It's a sunny day

He receives Amazon Research Award to improve monitoring of Earth’s ecosystem

A new project led by Professor Jingrui He aims to help scientists monitor disruptions to the Earth’s ecosystem, such as climate change. She recently received support for her work through an Amazon Research Award, which includes $60,000 in cash and an additional $40,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits.

Jingrui He

iSchool researchers to present at CHI 2025

iSchool faculty and students will present their research at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025), which will be held from April 26 to May 1 in Yokohama, Japan.