Big Questions, Urgent Challenges: (Re)mapping Liberal Learning Across the Curriculum Visioning for...
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Transcript of Big Questions, Urgent Challenges: (Re)mapping Liberal Learning Across the Curriculum Visioning for...
Big Questions, Urgent Challenges: (Re)mapping Liberal Learning
Across the Curriculum
Visioning for Excellence: Symposium on the Future of Integrative, Applied Liberal Arts and Sciences
University of BaltimoreDecember 4, 2012
Overview
1. Definitions and Contexts
2. Purposeful Liberal Learning
3. High Impact Practices
4. Intentional, Integrative, and Adaptive Liberal Learning
Contexts:Changing Designs for
College Learning
The Nineteenth Century College
The Twentieth Century University
A Common Core Curriculum(All learning is both “general and liberal education”)
Breadth + Depth(Breadth = General Studies; Depth = Majors; “liberal education” becomes synonymous with “general education”)
A Curriculum in Transition:Rethinking educational purposes and practices to better prepare students for
• Innovation in the Economy
• Global Interdependence
• Healthy, Democratic, and Just Societies
Contexts:The Twenty-First Century
Academy
2000-2005 – Greater Expectations –
A National Dialogue About Purposes and Effective Practices in College Learning
2005-Present – Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP)
A Signature Initiative to Advance Intentional and Integrative
Learning for All Students
How Do We Prepare Students for
Twenty-First Century Realities?
The Core LEAP Insight:The World Itself is
Demanding More from College – Much More
Connecting College Learning With Societal Needs
Economic Challenges
Civic and Global Challenges
College Learning for the 21st Century Economy
What Employers Seek:
They want and seek many more college-educated workers
They also seek much higher and broader levels of learning in those they employ, retain, and promote
Economic Pressures: Volatility and Complexity
Rapid scientific and technological innovations are changing the workplace and demanding more of all employees
Global interdependence and complex cross-cultural interactions increasingly define modern society and the workplace and also call for new levels of knowledge and capacity
The Growing Demand for Higher Order SkillsSource: Council on Competitiveness, Competitiveness Index
Employers Are Raising the Bar
88% of employers say that “the challenges their employees face are more complex than they were in the past.”
88% of employers agree that “to succeed in their companies, employees needs higher levels of learning and knowledge than they did in the past.”
91% of employers say that they are “asking employees to take on more responsibilities and to use a broader set of skills than in the past”
Source: “Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn” (AAC&U and Hart Research Associates, 2010)
Higher-Level Skills, Broader Learning – Why?
In a globalized knowledge economy, the capacity to drive INNOVATION is the key strategic advantage
To Drive Innovation, Employers Seek Employees Who Can “Think Outside
the Box”
A “360°Perspective”
Employers Do Not Want People Who Can Only See Things From One Point of
View“You cannot retreat to a cave and work in isolation until you like the solution.” – Frank Levinson, Managing Director, Small World Group, Singapore
“[T]he reason that Apple is able to create products like the iPad is that we’ve always tried
to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both…And it’s the combination of these two things
that I think has let us make…creative products like the iPad.”
Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Apple Inc.
Thinking Across Disciplines
Employers, In Sum, Are Looking for Graduates Who Are Highly Skilled in Cross-
Disciplinary, Integrative, and Adaptive Learning
The Modern Workplace Needs More Liberal Learning – Not Less
Connecting Learning With Societal Needs (cont.)
Economic Challenges
Civic and Global Challenges
THE CIVIC AND GLOBAL CHALLENGES WE FACE
ARE DAUNTING
Global and Civic Challenges
Poverty, War, Suffering…Sustenance and Human Dignity
Illiteracy and Its Effects…Education for Opportunity
Energy and the Environment…Sustainability Research and Innovation
Terrorism and Fear…
Law, Justice, Self-Determination, and the Future of Democracy
We Must Graduate Students Who Are Prepared and
Inspired to Take Responsibility for Solving
Urgent Problems – At Home and Abroad
A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future (AAC&U, 2012)
Written in Concert with Campus and Civic Leaders from All Parts
of Higher Education
www.aacu.org/civic_learning/crucible/documents/crucible_508F.pdf
A Crucible Moment Recommends That All
Disciplines Identify the Civic Inquiries Most Urgent to Explore and Infuse Civic
Learning Across the Curriculum
The National and Global Discussion About the Quality of College Learning
—and Whether Graduates Are Actually Prepared for 21st Century
Realities—Is Accelerating
LEAP Frames That Dialogue
The Good News: From a Decade of Analysis,
the Key Elements for 21st Century Liberal Learning – with a Central Role for the Arts and Sciences – Now Are in
Hand
Essential Aims and Outcomes Practices That Foster Achievement and
Completion Practices That Move Integrative Liberal
Learning to the Center Assessments That Raise—as well as Reveal—
the Level of Students’ Learning
The Key Elements for 21st Century Liberal Learning
T The LEAP Essential Aims and Outcomes
Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World
Intellectual and Practical Skills
Personal and Social Responsibility
Integrative and Applied Learning
Narrow Learning Is Not Enough!
Employers Strongly Endorse the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes – and Urge More Campus Emphasis on Them
And—Most Important— the LEAP Essential
Learning Outcomes Mirror Campus Priorities for High-
Quality Student Learning
The LEAP Outcomes Outline Goals for All Majors
and a Catalytic “Big Questions” Role for the
Liberal Arts and Sciences
Helping Students Achieve Essential Learning
Outcomes
Essential Aims and Outcomes Practices That Foster Achievement and
Completion Practices That Move Integrative Liberal
Learning to the Center Assessments That Raise—as well as Reveal—
the Level of Students’ Learning
The Key Elements for 21st Century Liberal Learning
High Impact Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and
Why They Matter by George D. Kuh
(LEAP report, October 2008, www.aacu.org)
High Impact Practices
First-Year Seminars and Experiences
Common Intellectual Experiences
Learning Communities
Writing-Intensive Courses
Collaborative Assignments and Projects
“Science as Science Is Done”/Undergraduate Research
Diversity/Global Learning
Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
Internships
Capstone Courses and Projects
NSSE Research Shows That:
Higher Levels of Participation in High Impact Practices (HIPs) Correlate with
• Higher Retention• Higher Grade Point Average
HIPs Offer “Compensatory Benefit” for Students from Less Advantaged Backgrounds and/or with Lower Entering Scores
Five High-Impact Practices: Research on Learning Outcomes,
Completion, and Quality
Lynn Swaner and Jayne Brownell
(AAC&U, 2010, www.aacu.org)
This Commissioned Review of Extant Research Shows that High Impact Practices DO Help Students Achieve Many
“Essential Learning Outcomes”
How HIPs Work:Common Features
Substantive interaction with faculty & peers
Frequent feedback
Engagement with difference
Engagement with higher-order thinkingAnalysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
Application
Significant time on purposeful questions
Capacity to be “life-changing” National Survey of Student Engagement
Essential Aims and Outcomes Practices That Foster Achievement and
Completion Practices That Move Integrative Liberal
Learning to the Center Assessments That Raise—as well as Reveal—
the Level of Students’ Learning
The Key Elements for 21st Century Liberal Learning
AAC&U’s Recommendation:
To Foster Essential Learning Outcomes—Including Integrative and Applied Learning—Faculty Should Map Appropriate High Impact Practices Across-the-Curriculum – and Link Them Directly to “Big Questions” and Students’ Own Role in Helping to Solve Urgent Problems
Four Principles of Excellence for
Integrative Liberal Learning
Engage the Big QuestionsTeach the Arts of Inquiry and InnovationConnect Knowledge with Choices and ActionFoster Civic, Intercultural, and Ethical Learning
For Broad Knowledge – and that “Big Picture”
Perspective
1. Engage the Big Questions
Teach Through the Curriculum to Far-Reaching Issues – Contemporary and Enduring – in Science and Society, Cultures and Values, Global Interdependence, the Changing Economy, and Human Dignity and Freedom
Introduce “Big Questions” in First Year General Education Programs
e.g. What is a Good Society? Historical, Cross-Cultural, and
Personal ReflectionsExpect Advanced Students to Explore Their
Own “Big Questions” in Their Majors and in Advanced Cross-Disciplinary Contexts
High-Impact Practices to Engage Students with
Broad Knowledge and Big Questions/Big Picture
Cluster Courses – e.g., Several Courses That Explore Common Topics Such as Diversity and Social Power or Sustainability or Poverty
Writing and ResearchCollaborative Assignments and Projects
To Develop Intellectual and Practical Skills
2. Teach the Arts of Inquiry and InnovationImmerse All Students in Analysis, Discovery, Problem Solving, and Communication, Beginning in School and Advancing in the University
Break Students of the Idea That They Have Come to the University Mainly to Learn “What is Already Known”
Emphasize the Societal and Economic Value of Research into Emerging Questions –– Preparation for jobs that are rapidly changing– Solutions to problems we are only starting to
understand– Responsibility for a world—local and global—
that we share in common
High-Impact Practices to Help Students Master the “Arts of Inquiry” and Skills Related to Innovative Problem Solving
Research questions and assignments early and oftenIn early AND advanced General Education
In Major Programs
Connecting “Big Questions” with Majors
Field-Based Research and Problem-Solving – With Employers and/or Community Partners
Culminating or Capstone Projects
To Foster Integrative and Adaptive Learning
3. Connect Knowledge with Choices and Actions Prepare Students for Citizenship and Work through Engaged and Guided Learning on “Real-World” Problems
Both the economy and society need graduates who are ready to apply their learning to new settings and problems—AND, who are competent in learning FROM experience
So, the goal is to connect both inquiry and knowledge with action—but, also, to give students rich opportunities to reflect on their “real-world” learning and to revise their assumptions in light of experience
High-Impact Practices to Help Students Integrate Knowledge with Action
Internships, Practicums, Study Abroad Service Learning/Civic Problem-SolvingResearch with Community PartnersCulminating or Capstone Projects That Blend
Research and Real-World Problems
To Help Students Take Responsibility for a
World Shared in Common
4. Foster Civic, Intercultural, and Ethical LearningEmphasize Personal and Social Responsibility, in Every Field of Study
Too often, faculty introduce ethical, intercultural (diversity) and ethical questions in general education, but spend little or no time on them in major programs
A 21st century education should prepare students to tackle difficult cultural, ethical, and societal issues, both through general studies and through major programs
High-Impact Practices to Help Students Develop
Intercultural Competence, Social Responsibility, and
Ethical Judgment
Diversity studies and experiences, especially when “intergroup dialogue” is included
Global studies and experiencesCommon intellectual experiencesGuided ethical reflection—case studies; students’
own experiences
Essential Aims and Outcomes Practices That Foster Achievement and
Completion Practices That Move Integrative Liberal
Learning to the Center Assessments That Raise—as well as Reveal—
the Level of Students’ Learning
The Key Elements for 21st Century Liberal Learning
Assessing Students’ Progress in Achieving Key Learning Outcomes
“It’s not a multiple-choice world...”
And Therefore, We Need to:
“Assess Students’ Ability to Apply Their Learning to Complex Problems”
-LEAP Principle of Excellence
Programs That Foreground
High Effort Practices – e.g. Research, Internships,
Capstones – Are Already Poised to Meet This Standard
Done Well, Assessment Itself
Can Become a High Impact Educational Practice
The Long-Term LEAP Goal is to Make Excellence Inclusive, Not Exclusive, By
Giving Students a Framework for Learning
and for Their Own Demonstrated
Accomplishment
In Sum
The Integrative Liberal Learning Curriculum and Co-curriculum Help Students See What Matters in Their Studies
Provides Multiple Opportunities for Studentsto Meet Expected Standards—and to Do Their Best Work
Helps Students Prepare to Apply their Learning—Over a Lifetime—to New Problems, New Settings, New Challenges
An Intentional Curriculum—in Short—is the Key to
Students’ Actual Achievement of Essential Learning Outcomes
and an Integrative Liberal Education
And, Given the Complexity of 21st Century Challenges and
Realities, An Integrative, Liberal Education is What
Every Student Needs