Bringing It Home
Byers pens second book on homeschooling
From homeschool to high school to the halls of higher education, whether it's in class or online, Bellevue University's Dr. David Byers has been there. A 10+ year veteran of the Bellevue University faculty, Byers' second book on home schooling, Leadership Lessons for Homeschooled Teens, will be published by Mapletree Publishing in 2012. His wife of 27 years, Chandra, coauthored the book.
"I've been a teacher and a leader in a variety of settings for my entire professional career. I've taught at all levels of education. I was a preschool and kindergarten teacher for many years. I worked with high school youth as a Family Teacher at Boys Town," Byers explained. "I've taught undergraduate and graduate-level college courses both online and in the classroom for several schools over the years. I've taught a variety of courses over the years in many different fields including speech, healthcare, management, education, training, technical software functionality, business information systems, and of course, leadership!"
"One of the biggest advantages to homeschooling is more individualized attention that the student receives compared to what he/she might receive in other school settings," Byers said. "Homeschooled students can progress at their own pace taking more or less time on lessons as their skills require rather than being at the mercy of the group pace for the course."
At Bellevue University, Byers has led the Master of Arts in Leadership program and teaches in the College of Arts and Sciences. He has witnessed significant growth and change during his time at the University.
"We have added a great number of new programs in the past few years and these have become very successful, which shows that we take purposeful and direct action to meet the needs of our current and future students," Byers said. "We're working hard to increase and to measure the effectiveness of what and how we teach our students. Our faculty and administration have been working collaboratively on a variety of ongoing and new initiatives. We've developed a stronger infrastructure to support the needs of our students, faculty, and staff."
Byers received his Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning in 2005. His first book, College-Prep Homeschooling, is a reworking of his doctoral dissertation. The updated, second edition of the book is due out in May.
"My perspective in the book was focused on what homeschooling students (or any student) needed to be successful in college," Byers said. "I provided insights from the higher education viewpoint."
Byers can also share special insight into both in class and online learning, having been both a student and professor in both environments.
"Online courses offer a very effective way of learning that is extremely competitive with the traditional in-class method," Byers said. "Academic success requires self-discipline, effective time management, and excellent writing skills--and these skills are even more important at the graduate level, particularly online where the student enjoys a certain amount of independence as a learner. Procrastination is an unhealthy habit for every student, but particularly so for the online, graduate student who doesn't have to "face" the instructor each week in class."
