General Education, Assessment, and the Learning Students Need
Pre-conference Workshops*
Thursday, February 26, 2009, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
(*separate registration and fee required: $100 members; $125 non-members)
WORKSHOP 1: Blurring Boundaries: Developing a Four-Year, Integrated Curriculum Tailored to Each Student
Over the past several years, higher education has begun to reconsider its approach to general education from a set of disparate, menu-based courses to a more intentional and student-centered program of study from first to final year. In this workshop, participants will learn about an innovative, integrative approach to undergraduate learning at Arcadia University that blurs traditional boundaries between general education and the majors and offers flexible paths of study for students. Instead of requiring students to explore isolated subjects in courses outside of their majors, Arcadia’s program calls for students to (a) participate in common curricular experiences, including a first-year experience, university seminars, an advanced study-away experience, and a senior capstone; (b) explore areas of inquiry; and (c) develop intellectual practices, all in relation to their majors and areas of interest. Participants will examine Arcadia’s program from conceptualization to implementation and apply the lessons learned to their own general education reform. This workshop will be of interest to faculty and others involved in general education who are interested in a more integrative approach that both informs and draws on learning within the majors.
Participants are asked to bring four copies of any documents they would consult before beginning to revise their institution's general education curriculum, particularly the institution's mission statement. The copies will be used for a group exercise.
Norah Shultz, Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Education and Jeffrey Shultz, Assistant Provost for Special Projects and Professor of Education—Arcadia University
WORKSHOP 2: General Education and Social Justice: A Integrative Praxis Approach
This workshop will offer a practical, participatory opportunity for faculty to develop general education courses that integrate diversity, civic, and global learning and equip students with knowledge and skills to address social justice within their communities and the world. Participants will explore two institutional approaches that ask students and faculty to grapple with questions of human experience, personal and social responsibility, and just and sustainable communities and societies. Both approaches have developed general education courses that are deeply grounded in the theory and practice of integrative, experiential education and that have honed a tradition of learning in and with communities. Facilitators will briefly review the research on effective teaching and learning and offer case studies that will enable participants to leave the workshop with a framework for course development/revision. In small groups, participants will also have an opportunity to reflect on a particular course they plan to offer.
Garry Hesser, Sabo Professor of Citizenship and Learning, Sociology and Metro-Urban Studies—Augsburg College; Jenny Keyser, Executive Director—Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA); and Deep Shikha, Professor and Chair, Economics—College of St. Catherine
WORKSHOP 3: Using Student Artifacts to Enhance Coherence in General Education and Transfer
In General Education in an Age of Student Mobility, author Robert Shoenberg criticizes state-mandated general education articulation and course transfer agreements for resulting in “lowest-common denominator general education program[s], based invariably on loose distribution requirements.” This workshop will experiment with an alternative method for addressing coherence in general education and in transfer — using samples of student work to engage in dialogue about educational quality. In the workshop, participants will be invited to examine samples of student work from the facilitators’ institutions. Conversation will focus on developing shared values regarding educational quality at the departmental, campus, and multi-campus levels, including how to use common values and student artifacts as a basis for transfer among institutions. The goal is for participants to return to their own institutions and use student artifacts and dialogue to develop more meaningful and ethical assessments of student work, to overcome barriers to student learning and transfer, and to improve existing transfer agreements.
Linda Adler-Kassner, Director of First-Year Writing and Associate Professor of English—Eastern Michigan University; Barry Alford, Professor of English—Mid-Michigan Community College; Bob Broad, Director, Writing Program and Professor of English—Illinois State University; Chris Wood Foreman, General Education Director—Eastern Michigan University; Michael Gress, Chair of English and Coordinator of General Education—Vincennes University and Past-President of the Association for General and Liberal Studies; Joan Hawthorne, Assistant Provost—University of North Dakota; David McGuirk, Co-chair, Learning Outcomes Assessment Team—Miami Dade College; and Tom Steen, Director of General Studies—University of North Dakota
WORKSHOP 4: Developing Assessments that Foster and Improve Student Learning
What forms of assessment advance the learning that colleges and universities want to develop with their students? What special role can milestone and culminating assessments play in general education? In this workshop, participants will focus on developing assessments that foster and improve achievement of essential learning outcomes. Using insights from the long-standing King’s College assessment program and paying particular attention to milestone and capstone experiences in general education, facilitators and participants will discuss how to generate useful data for a variety of audiences and make assessment a routine part of every student’s learning experience. This workshop is designed for faculty, institutional researchers, and teaching and learning center leaders.
Jennifer McClinton-Temple, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center and Jean O’Brien, Professor of Psychology and former Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and—both of King’s College
WORKSHOP 5: Supporting Faculty Innovation in General Education
How do we invite, encourage, and support faculty, as disciplinary specialists, to excel at teaching outcomes that transcend their disciplines or hail from other disciplines? What is the educational responsibility that faculty members have for fostering a positive climate for learning, and how can faculty work in this area be rewarded? In this workshop, participants will examine structures, processes, and reward systems that value and advance faculty interest — and innovation — in general education. The workshop is designed for faculty, teaching and learning center and faculty development leaders, and administrators dedicated to fostering general education that equips students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to address the complex and contemporary challenges of our diverse and knowledge-based society.
Laurence Miners, Director, Center for Academic Excellence Associate, and Kathryn A. Nantz, Director of the Core Integration Initiative—Both of Fairfield University; and Mathew L. Ouellett, Director, Center for Teaching, University of Massachusetts Amherst and past president, of POD, Professional and Organizational Development Network for Higher Education
WORKSHOP 6: Sustaining Intentional General Education Programs
AAC&U’s articulation of essential outcomes provides a vision for aligning policies and practices as campuses seek to enhance student learning. This workshop will provide both theoretical grounding and practical guidelines for not only designing but also sustaining programs based on student learning outcomes — beginning with an articulation of those outcomes for entering students and continuing through the undergraduate curriculum and co-curriculum, with assessment of those outcomes and strategies for utilizing assessment results for program improvement. James Madison University and Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) have each spent a decade implementing general education curricula that provide coherent undergraduate programs of intentional educational practices. As mature programs, they also face special challenges in maintaining campus engagement. Workshop presenters from these two campuses will provide descriptions and analyses of their programs, stressing assessment and improvement, and work with participants to draw out strategies for both implementing and sustaining intentional practices on their home campuses.
Scott Evenbeck, Dean of University College and Frank E. Ross, III, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Life and Learning—both from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, and Linda Cabe Halpern, Dean of University Studies—James Madison University
**Sponsored by the American Conference for Academic Deans
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