TEACHING WITH PURPOSE IN MIND

DEPAUL T.L.A. FACULTY WORKSHOP

JANUARY 2017

Mark Laboe Associate VP, University Ministr y/Student Af fairs

Please Introduce Yourself:

1. Name

2. Position / Department and years at DePaul

3. Why was this workshop of interest and/or relevance to you?

Warm-Up Activity (while eating!): The “Wheel of Purpose”

1. Spin Wheel 2. Discuss a question prompt in pairs or threes. 3. Repeat

Explore Your Purpose: The Four Enduring Understandings of Purpose

Enduring Understanding #1: LIVING A MEANINGFUL LIFE Personal meaning and social purpose are essential components for a good and fulfilling life and are assets in one’s work/career.

Enduring Understanding #2: DISCERNING VOCATION Discerning a sense of vocation (personal meaning and social purpose) happens over time and requires intentionality and ongoing personal reflection on one’s life experiences, as well as help from others.

Enduring Understanding #3: UNDERSTANDING THE VINCENTIAN HEART Living with personal meaning and social purpose is not all about you, but ultimately more about how you relate to the larger world and human community. Enduring Understanding #4 SUSTAINING THE JOURNEY Sustaining personal meaning and social purpose over a lifetime will require moving through moments of difficulty and developing sustaining practices which foster and evolve one’s sense of vocation in an ongoing way over time.

Overview of Today’s Session 1. What motivates this session?

A. Vincentian Mission B. Student Success and Learning C. Faculty Satisfaction and Engagement in Mission

2. Reflect on and discuss the notion of purpose (vocation) and why it matters

3. Engage first hand in some reflective and group activities related to purpose, or “vocation.” Consider and discuss concrete applications of this idea for various classroom/educational settings. Workshop with colleagues on integrating purpose more intentionally into particular classes or class assignments.

4. Give context and background of the Explore Your Purpose (EYP) project at DePaul

5. Understand the various resources available to you and others here at DePaul related to this project

Motivation: DePaul’s Vincentian Mission Mission Statement

DePaul University emphasizes the development of a full range of human capabilities and an appreciation of higher education as a means to engage cultural, social, religious, and ethical values in service to others.

DePaul University Learning Goals and Outcomes: http://www.depaul.edu/university-catalog/academic-handbooks/graduate/university-information/Pages/ten-learning-goals.aspx

Goal 3. Personal and Social Responsibility

This goal honors the notion that knowledge reflects and contributes to the values of individuals and communities. DePaul students, in particular, are challenged to consider their own values in light of the university’s mission.

DePaul Brand: Catholic and Vincentian Ethos

Attributes of a DePaul Education include students being “Grounded by meaning and purpose”

DePaul’s Vincentian Mission From the standpoint of this MISSION…

STUDENT SUCCESS must be about more than only retention, persistence, graduation, and employability (though it certainly includes those things, too.)

When we consider GRADUATES / ALUMS…

… what kind of person/alum best reflects DePaul and helps to promote DePaul through who they are and what they do (generates positive word of mouth, are they a walking example of the brand and what we are about?)

… what we must do in the educational process to help encourage and develop this type of graduate?

Introducing and Integrating “VINCENTIAN” into the education we deliver

What might it mean to cultivate a “DePaul/Vincentian Heart”? ◦ Educating and graduating not “brains on a stick” or “cogs in the machine”

but whole people prepared to make a significant, positive contribution to the world and the communities in which they live and work. ◦ Helping to form people who care. ◦ Developing some degree of awareness and attention to the needs of people

who are poor and marginalized in society ◦ Becoming grounded in a sense of personal meaning and social purpose

Activity: Learning to Learn Using the handout, reflect for a moment to consider the important moments in your own journey towards engaged learning…. In a few minutes, prepare to discuss a few of the main steps on your path with a partner or two.

Why does your own story matter as an educator/faculty member?

“… seldom, if ever, do we ask the “who” question – who is the self that teaches? How does the quality of my selfhood form – or deform – the way I relate to my students, my subject, my colleagues, my world?”

“If we want to grow as teachers -- we must do something alien to academic culture: we must talk to each other about our inner lives -- risky stuff in a profession that fears the personal and seeks safety in the technical, the distant, the abstract.”

Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life

Side Comment: Value of (Your) Authenticity Today in the Process of Student Learning

◦ Authenticity in the world of “fake news” ◦ Importance of student to faculty relationships in student engagement,

satisfaction and success ◦ A sense of relevance related to learning fosters student investment

◦ Young adult learning and development happens best in “mentoring

environment.” (e.g., notion of “apprenticeship” includes relational dimension and modeling.) ◦ Serves your integrity and sustained engagement

Integrating Purpose: Moving beyond “detached” learning to whole person, deep learning

How do you engage and integrate your own personal journey and story into your teaching and pedagogy? How might you invite students to do the same?

Why does PURPOSE matter?

“…when colleges and universities meaningfully engage (in) sustained conversations with students about questions of purpose, the result is a rise in overall campus engagement and recalibration of post-college trajectories that set graduates on journeys of significance and impact.”

Why does PURPOSE matter?

Of the 790 unique faculty and staff respondents to Clydesdale’s research on college and university “purpose exploration programs”: ◦ 86 percent of faculty respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their campus’s

vocational programs had “positively impacted my own work” ◦ 75 percent agreed that their participation “helped me hone my own sense of vocation,

calling, or purpose”; and ◦ 85 percent said that participation “deepened my appreciation for the mission of this

school.” ◦ Percentages were even higher among staff respondents, coming in at 90 percent, 84

percent, and 93 percent, respectively

Why does PURPOSE matter?

Programs of purpose exploration “measurably improved students’ abilities to engage with the world in ways that furthered their advancement, including academic learning, co-curricular involvement and discernment of career goals… (and) also revealed substantially higher levels of life satisfaction and persistence towards (post-college) goals in the face of setbacks…”

Why does PURPOSE matter? “The educational opportunity is to

engage this ambivalence (between professional training and liberal

education) as a point of entry into the (question) of the practical meaning of the good life and of the kind of preparation

needed to live it well.”

William M. Sullivan, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

“Vocation: Where Liberal and Professional Education Meet,” Liberal Arts: Journal of the Institute for the Liberal Arts, Vol. 3, Westmont College, 2005.”

Why does PURPOSE matter? CONTRIBUTES TO:

HOW STUDENTS LEARN A reason to engage (interest, relevance) Sustained motivation for ongoing learning Resilience / Persistence / Grit HOW YOU TEACH Beyond just the content… “YOU TEACH WHO YOU ARE”

Purpose: Paths towards Personal Meaning in Teaching and Learning

REFLECTIVE LEARNING Self Understanding: Talents, Gifts, Interests, Joys, Resources Learning from Experiences: Cultivating a reflective habit, reflective skills, meta-cognitive awareness

INTEGRATIVE LEARNING Moments of contemplative pause (beyond rote learning) What I put into it + what happened in the process What does it mean? Evaluate based on values

Purpose: Paths towards Social Purpose in Teaching and Learning

APPLIED LEARNING (Application of Theory)… Understanding the relevance of learning, how it can be applied

Transferring knowledge to new situations

Create new and personalized approaches based on learning

…TO CONCRETE SOCIAL ISSUES Directly, personally, and relationally with others

Aligning more closely with one’s personal worldview and vision of justice and purpose

The “threshold concept” of VOCATION

SEE HANDOUT

A Shortcut Definition for Vocation:

Personal Meaning + Social Purpose

Vocation lies at the intersection of:

Cognitive learning

Holistic Personal Development

Integration

Application

Social and Ethical Responsibility

VOCATION

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Frederick Buechner,

Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC

Consider…

When it comes to your own self-understanding, or your personal sense of purpose or “calling”…

What are a few of the relevant and

meaningful threads of meaning and purpose that have woven their way

through the different times and contexts of your life?

Reflective Activity: Your Personal Sense of Vocation Spend a few minutes in personal reflection. Be prepared to discuss.

Vocation within Different Faculty Roles

PERSONAL SENSE OF VOCATION

As an educator

Within your particular academic discipline

As a citizen

Other Roles in your life: e.g., family

Discuss how your own sense of vocation plays into your various roles.

Developmentally, college students and young adults are increasingly capable of:

◦ self-awareness and spiritual growth (“adult faith”) ◦ Capacity for “interiority” ◦ Capacity for “meta-cognitive” awareness

◦ integrating and including the welfare others into their concept

of “self ” ◦ understanding their lives as a lifelong, organic, cumulative

process or journey

Vocation and College Students

HOW DO WE FOSTER THIS GROWTH AND LEARNING?

Activity: Towards a Larger Whole

How do you understand the “vocation” of your particular discipline?

PURPOSE in your pedagog y and syllabi

What are some ways in which you could (or already do) weave reflection and learning on personal meaning and social purpose (vocation) into your courses and work with students? What resources might you need to do this effectively?

Integrating Purpose into Existing Syllabi and Course Activities ◦ What is a particular course or activity in which you would hope to integrate this notion

of purpose or vocation? ◦ Tentative Plan: ◦ Get into pairs or threes. Spend 5 minutes each presenting to the others in your group about

your course/activity and any current ideas you may have about integrating purpose/vocation. Invite their input.

◦ Large group: Gather insights/wisdom from small group conversations

Integrating Purpose into Existing Syllabi and Course Activities: A few thoughts

#1: CONTEXT MATTERS #2: Some Non-Contextual Ideas:

◦ Add a reflective dimension to the assignment or at end of class period (i.e., What did you learn about yourself - your likes, dislikes, beliefs, values, etc - in this reading or assignment) ◦ Cultivate appreciation for the historical or evolutionary development of thought – in the

field, in your own thinking as a faculty member, and in students themselves ◦ Invite awareness regarding the impact of life experiences and broader systems on how they

think, feel and perceive situations. Illustrate how social location and context has impact. ◦ Ask questions about how a particular approach or decision may impact those with little

power, those marginalized or socioeconomically poor (Vincentian question) ◦ What would your parents or family of origin have to say about this and what do you

appreciate about their perspective? In what ways might you disagree? (individuation) ◦ What do you think might be missing if your perspective were not voiced? ◦ Invite real-life examples and stories relevant to the content - start with them.

A campus-wide initiative made possible by grants from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) of the Council of Independent Colleges(CIC) and the Vincentian Endowment Fund (VEF). Ongoing staffing and funding provided by University Ministry/Student Affairs, Mission and Values, the Career Center/EMM and the Offices of Academic Advising Support and Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Academic Affairs, as well as a growing network of additional faculty and staff.

Purpose is strategically chosen focal point where the heart of the Vincentian mission intersects naturally with the relevant interests and needs of DePaul students (e.g., career/job, meaningful life) . . . and therefore can be broadly and meaningfully engaged and transmitted and help integrate the curricular and co-curricular life of the student

Purpose is more easily understood (than “vocation”) by a broader audience as an entry point to conversation.

The Explore Your Purpose Initiative at DePaul

Explore Your Purpose at DePaul Vision

EYP will offer various and multiple resources and opportunities to students during their DePaul experience to reflect more intentionally and consistently on what gives them a sense of personal meaning and social purpose consistent with DePaul’s mission promise.

EYP will offer faculty and staff resources and opportunities related to remembering and reflecting on their own sense of vocation in their work with students and/or on the role of their particular academic discipline and its place in the service of the common good.

EYP Email List-Serve sign up: EMAIL Mark Laboe at mlaboe@depaul.edu

* updates on events and opportunities for faculty and staff

STRATEGIES 1. Identify, collate and develop accessible, easy-to-use resources oriented toward DePaul

students related to purpose exploration which can be integrated as useful/helpful in a variety of contexts.

2. Offer by invitation and incentive some professional development opportunities for faculty and staff related to V3/purpose exploration so that they may grow more comfortable introducing such content/questions into work with students.

3. Develop some targeted programs for students to meet identified areas of need or opportunity and in partnership with others.

4. Foster college/discipline specific reflection among faculty, alumni and students on the purpose or “vocation” of different disciplines.

V3: Vincentian Values and Vision

EYP: Institution-Wide Engagement

Resources Available to You and to Students ◦ Student Website: https://resources.depaul.edu/student-success/explore-your-purpose/Pages/default.aspx

(OR: go.depaul.edu/purpose )

◦ Teaching Commons will house faculty/staff oriented site (early winter) ◦ https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/learning-activities/Pages/default.aspx ◦ http://bit.ly/purpose-activities

◦ Wheel of Purpose (mini, personal version and large wheel)

◦ Personal coaching from EYP Core Team to consider how purpose exploration might be integrated into your

current work with students

Opportunities for Involvement 1. Begin (or continue) to incorporate purpose exploration into your conversation and work with students… as well as with

colleagues. Let us know when you do so and what was the result!

2. Share and post helpful purpose-oriented resources that you know of to: http://go.depaul.edu/purpose

3. Help to foster college/discipline specific reflection among faculty, alumni and students on the purpose or “vocation” of different academic disciplines and careers. Consider thinking about and maybe writing something up – about the vocation of your discipline or a particular major.

4. Agree to be interviewed about your own sense of vocation and how you incorporate it into your life and work at DePaul..

5. Help with finding and/or developing the learning/reflection activities corresponding to the 4 enduring understandings. Also, share what you already use to achieve these outcomes.