Vol. 10, No. 4 | fAll 2008
E m e r g i n g T r e n d s a n d K e y d E b ate s i n U n d e r g r a d uate E d u c at i o n
Toward Intentionality and Integration
A publication of the Association of American Colleges and Universities contents
Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs Debra Humphreys FALL 2008 Editor From the President ...... 3 Shelley Johnson Carey Associate Editor ANALYSIS Laura Donnelly-Smith Design & Production Toward Intentionality and Transparency: Analysis and Reflection Darbi Bossman on the Process of General Education Reform Rita C . Kean, Nancy D . Mitchell, and David E . Wilson...... 4 Editorial Advisory Board James A. Anderson Fayetteville State University Enhancing Intentionality in the Requirement-free Curriculum Randy Bass Laura Donnelly-Smith...... 9 Georgetown University David A. Berry Community College Humanities Association PRACTICE Norman Coombs Liberal Arts Matters at Butler University: An Experiment in Rochester Institute of Technology Peter Ewell Institutional Transformation National Center for Higher Education Judith Morrel and Michael Zimmerman ...... 12 Management Systems Ann S. Ferren American University in Bulgaria Intentionality and Integration in Undergraduate Global Public Mildred García Health Education California State University–Dominguez Hills Ruth Gaare Bernheim, Nisha Botchwey, and Rebecca Dillingham...... 16 Richard Guarasci Wagner College Elise B. Jorgens Integrative Learning: A Room with a View College of Charleston Jean Mach, Michael Burke, and Jeremy Ball...... 20 Adrianna J. Kezar University of Southern California Ann Leffler Intentional and Integrated Learning in a New Cognitive Age: A Signature University of Maine Pedagogy for Undergraduate Education in the Twenty First Century Donna Maeda June Youatt and Kim A . Wilcox ...... 24 Occidental College David E. Maxwell Drake University RESOURCES Catherine Hurt Middlecamp AAC&U Calendar...... 8 University of Wisconsin–Madison AAC&U Work on Intentionality and Integrative Learning ...... 29 Chandra Talpade Mohanty Hamilton College John P. Nichols RESEARCH Saint Joseph’s College Why Integration and Engagement Are Essential to Effective G. Roger Sell Missouri State University Educational Practice in the Twenty-first Century Joan Straumanis George D . Kuh...... 27 National Science Foundation Beverly Daniel Tatum Spelman College REALITY CHECK Integrative Learning: Setting the Stage for a Pedagogy of the Contemporary Veronica Boix Mansilla...... 31 E m e r g i n g T r e n d s a n d K e y d E b ate s i n U n d e r g r a d u ate E d u c at i o n Vol. 10, No. 4 | fALL 2008 Annual subscription rates are $35 for individuals and $45 for libraries. Single issues are $8/$10; Published by the Association of bulk discounts are available. For additional information or to place an order, visit us online American Colleges and Universities ©2008 1818 R Street, NW • Washington, DC 20009 or call 800.297.3775. 202.387.3760 • www.aacu.org www.aacu.org/peerreview ISSN: 1541-1389
2 AAC&U | Peer Review | FALL 2008 from the PRESIDENT
ntentional and integrative learning have been themes in our can, in a systematic way, reflect on what they are encountering work at AAC&U for decades. But in recent years, the urgency in the field and use insights gained in the field to question, to with which college leaders and faculty have embraced these modify, to connect, and perhaps to integrate things they learned concepts has increased significantly. Our members know that in academic settings. When we surveyed recent graduates, another Ithese issues stand at the heart of the task of preparing students important constituency, they, too, believed higher education should for a much more challenging environment. Thus, colleges and place more emphasis on applied learning in real-world settings. universities are working to become more intentional both about For graduates five to ten years out, more emphasis on how to use the purposes of education and about the practices that help today’s knowledge and how to apply it was their top goal for strengthening students succeed in college. undergraduate education. The emerging interest in integration and applied learning is So how does this emphasis on integrative learning change captured in the LEAP vision of essential learning outcomes, or our approach to liberal education? When you look at the four liberal education outcomes. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that this categories of the essential learning outcomes in the LEAP vision, theme adds an important twenty-first century dimension to both the first three—broad knowledge, intellectual and practical skills, the philosophy and the practice of liberal education. and personal and social responsibility—are updated versions One of the indicators of real student progress will surely need of the most classical goals of the liberal arts tradition. In every to be how well they can integrate and apply their learning from era, from ancient Greece, throughout the middle ages, to the different sources to new problems—unscripted problems and real- nineteenth century, a liberal education has emphasized three world questions. This notion of integrative learning resonates in elements—(1) the knowledge that leaders need to function different ways for different stakeholders in higher education. effectively in their society; (2) the development of the powers Faculty members want students to use their learning to take of the mind and cultivation of the capacity for reasoned analysis responsibility for the big challenges that we face as a global and judgment; and (3) the notion that we are forming people for community and the problems we encounter in our communities. society and that it is important that they possess civic virtues and No significant problem can be solved through the lens of a single examined commitments that serve the particular society in which discipline. Real-world questions do not come nicely sorted out as they are citizens and leaders. As such, the first three categories “I belong to economics” or “I belong to psychology.” In response, are just reframings for our time of enduring liberal arts goals. But we’re seeing examples of new curricula both in departments and in the fourth category, integrative and applied learning, is a truly advanced general education that are organized around big themes twenty-first century liberal art. Integrative learning marks a notable and big questions and that deliberately link different courses and shift in the practice of the liberal arts from language we used to disciplines in exploration of the question. use—understanding, appreciating, comprehending, remembering to There is much more interest in the academy now in engaging actually being able to do. Students must now know how to apply students in the implications of knowledge, not just acquiring knowledge and to use it in new contexts. knowledge but looking at how it can be used to both understand And that’s where we see the most the energy on campus—new and solve significant problems, such as environmental sustainability designs that get students out in the field connecting academic or religious conflict. That pulls you toward more integrative and field-based learning, especially in the context of their major designs for learning and the equal interest in getting students out in fields. This emphasis on integrative and applied learning is helping the field to test their skills against real problems. to build capabilities that we need as a society facing some of the Employers also want to know that students can actually apply most difficult challenges that we have faced in recent history— their learning to the new questions and problems experienced in fundamentally issues about survival. These critical times will define the workplace. Employers want to know not just that students can the future that we will create together and our students’ capacity to apply and integrate different disciplines, but that they can integrate integrate will be the key to our success. their academic learning in field-based settings. Above and beyond — Carol Geary Schneider the lenses of a particular discipline, employers need workers who
FALL 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 3 Analysis
Toward Intentionality and Transparency: Analysis and Reflection on the Process of General Education Reform
▶ rita C. Kean, dean of undergraduate studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Nancy D. Mitchell, interim director of general education, University of Nebraska–Lincoln David E. Wilson, associate vice chancellor of academic affairs, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
n 2000, the Association of American Colleges and Universities the eight undergraduate colleges. This includes a diverse set of (AAC&U) launched its multiyear initiative, Greater Expectations: responsibilities and yet provides a coherent structure, leadership, The Commitment to Quality as a Nation Goes to College. and oversight for institutional programs. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) was one of The campus is committed to a strategic planning process, first Isixteen colleges and universities from across the nation selected introduced in 2004. At UNL, strategic planning is a ‘grassroots’ to participate in the Greater Expectations Consortium on process, beginning with academic priorities established at the Quality Education. This initiative intersected with structural unit level and then advancing through the college level. Deans and cultural changes at our university. Involvement with the present their college’s academic priorities and benchmarks for Greater Expectations initiative and subsequent AAC&U programs success, which in turn are incorporated into the campus-wide provided a number of us at UNL multiple opportunities to interact strategic plan. The strategic planning process established the with colleagues from a variety of institutions through consortium blueprint for prioritizing efforts on campus. As a result of the meetings and symposia. We were exposed to new ways of thinking planning, the chancellor in 2005 recommended reform of our and approaches to undergraduate education, which in turn general education program, partly because the curriculum was contributed to our ability as an institution to articulate and develop viewed as complicated and unattractive to students transferring a coherent strategy toward continuous improvement of the campus to our university and to current students transferring from learning environment. one college to another within the institution. The major work The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is a different institution by those in the university community to accomplish this task than it was in 2000. We have benefitted from strong, focused provides evidence that one of the major changes in the university administrative leadership whose priorities are continuous is a shift to become more intentional about what students should improvement of our research, graduate, and undergraduate learn. programs. Reports from three key faculty task forces (available online at www.unl.edu/svcaa/reports/) provided the campus Let the Process Begin community with vision and guidance for raising both the The formal process for reform of our general education intellectual engagement and achievement of the entire campus reorganization began in 2005, when the chancellor and senior vice community. In addition, there have been purposeful structural chancellor for academic affairs (SVCAA) appointed the associate changes and reallocation of resources within the institution vice chancellor of academic affairs and the dean of undergraduate to provide greater visibility and support to the success of our studies to lead the reform process. In addition, four faculty undergraduate students. For example, the office of undergraduate members representing key campus constituencies were chosen studies, led by an academic dean, was established in 2003 with to comprise the initial planning group, known as the General responsibilities for all academic programs and initiatives outside Education Planning Team (GEPT).
AAC&U | Peer Review | FAll 2008 The GEPT attended the 2005 AAC&U program based upon student learning conversations about general education, Institute on General Education at Salve outcomes. we realized that any new efforts to reform Regina University in Rhode Island and The end product of the GEAC UNL’s program must communicate the interacted with institute faculty and committee, Achievement-Centered intentionality of our efforts on many levels. colleagues from across the country Education (ACE) (ace.unl.edu), is a Integrating lessons learned by the smaller whose institutions were also involved program based on four institutional teams, who attended the AAC&U Summer in transforming their general education objectives and ten corresponding, Institute on General Education in 2005 programs. GEPT returned with a plan assessable student learning outcomes and 2006, and other national and local and timeline for organizing the campus- (SLOs) along with documents guiding conversations about quality education wide initiative. The plan called for a new the development and governance of the taught us that intentional learning requires approach to designing general education; program. Objectives are developmental transparency, strategic choices, inclusive that is, one based upon student learning and designed to be achieved over the decisions, and revolutionary thinking. outcomes rather than a menu of particular course of students’ college experience Guided by these values, we hoped to courses. GEPT also recommended that the and reinforced by accompanying SLOs be able to produce a general education SVCAA, in consultation with the academic and work in the majors. GEAC tried to program that would prepare students for deans, form a working advisory group to address faculty and student suggestions by challenges they will face in the twenty-first GEPT including faculty representation constructing a program that helps achieve century. from each undergraduate college, outcomes that will be visible and relevant. representatives from student government, In January 2008, the faculty of Being Transparent office of admissions, professional academic the University of Nebraska-Lincoln GEAC spent two years developing and advising and the director of institutional voted to approve the ACE program for fine-tuning UNL’s plan. It was critical that assessment. This group, known as the implementation in the fall 2009. It is a we made the reform effort, not simply General Education Advisory Council work in progress and always will be, as the end result, visible to all stakeholders (GEAC), was chaired by a university its foundation is based upon continuous including students, faculty, administrators, distinguished professor known for his improvement of the undergraduate learning staff, and those from external institutions excellence in teaching and commitment to experience. It requires active participation who were interested in particular aspects of undergraduate students. GEAC was charged to design a general education program that was We hoped to be able to produce a general education coherent, transparent, flexible, student- centered, transferable among the eight program that would prepare students for challenges undergraduate colleges and consistent they will face in the twenty-first century with national contemporary thinking about what students should know upon graduation. This was no small task. by faculty and students. To state that all our the new general education program, such The first year in consultation with the faculty are thrilled with this new approach as transfer-related issues. With the belief undergraduate colleges in the university, to general education would be inaccurate; that contributions from all areas could various faculty groups, and students, the however, the process for the development help construct a strong program, GEAC GEAC developed institutional objectives and implementation of this new program members listened to many voices, heard and related student learning outcomes. paved the way for our campus to view their concerns and ideas, and ensured that The GEAC began that work by posing a general education differently and, we all materials and meetings were available basic question to our faculty and students: believe, more in line with what our students to the university community through our What should all students—regardless need to thrive in a rapidly changing and, at Web site. of their major—know or be able to do times, unstable world. To create transparency, much emphasis by graduation? A small group of faculty has been placed on online and face-to- participated in the 2006 AAC&U General Making General Education face communication. An interim director Education institute with the goal of Visible and Valuable for general education was appointed to developing a plan for assessing such a Prompted by the national and local guide the implementation and facilitate
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U the process. As the program builds, the impression that research took priority over students as well. It is important to remind ACE Web site continues to be a central undergraduate education. It was, frankly, faculty and students what learning is to location for ACE-related resources, such as shocking to hear how some students occur. To make learning intentional at information about the course certification described their academic experience under the course level, every course certified for process, transfer policy, FAQs, updates, our old general education program. By inclusion in the ACE program must clearly and lists of groups consulted. Equally developing outcomes that align with the identify in the syllabus: important in our efforts to provide an ACE Liberal Education and America’s Promise § The learning outcome(s) that would be online library and archive are our efforts (LEAP) initiative (see table 1), the new satisfied by the course to reach to various constituencies on and general education program’s institutional § A brief description of the opportunities off campus to communicate in person objectives and learning outcomes now this course would provide for students about concerns. Communication remains emphasize ethical and civic responsibility, to acquire the knowledge or skills a critical component and efforts are wide- global awareness and diversity as well as necessary to achieve the learning ranging and ongoing. Some constituencies other skills and abilities. With the goal of outcome(s) include curriculum committees, student helping students understand how general § A brief description of the graded government, advisers and faculty senate, education relates to their majors, the assignments that the instructor(s) will and leaders at other institutions. program asks students to integrate the use to assess students’ achievement of In addition to talking with the knowledge and abilities developed in the the outcome(s) stakeholders mentioned above about student learning outcomes with other general education, efforts are being aspects of their education. Tying to Academic Strategic made to ensure that students understand Intentionality goes beyond simply Planning the intentionality of the ACE program. asking providers of education to teach The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Before developing ACE, GEAC listened to outcomes rather than the old subject- embarked on an iterative strategic planning to students and heard that they did not driven method. A critical component process to clarify the shared vision and always understand why they had to take of intentionality involves making sure best assess how to achieve that vision. a science or a modern language class. We students know why they are being asked Aligned with the university’s mission of heard some say they took their “generals” to learn certain outcomes and reminding learning, discovery, and engagement, the so they could get them over with and move faculty who teach to have that discussion institution’s two overarching priorities are on to the courses they were interested with students. It requires making undergraduate education and research. in, and some told us they had the intentions visible not just to faculty, but to Clearly, transforming general education supports the academic mission. Gano-Phillips and Barnett observed Table 1: LEAP/ACE reflection from UNL Web site that process is a key to success as university administrators and intellectual AAC&U Essential UNL’s Institutional Learning Objectives Learning Outcomes leadership forge new pathways for assessable general education programs Knowledge of Human Cultures Build knowledge of diverse peoples and cultures and of and the Physical and Natural the natural and physical world though the study of math- (2008). We would extend their argument World ematics, sciences and technologies, histories, humanities, arts, social sciences, and human diversity by asserting that the new general education program based on achieving Intellectual and Practical Skills Develop intellectual and practical skills, including profi- learning outcomes also provides a valuable ciency in written, oral, and visual communication; inquiry techniques; critical and creative thinking; quantitative strategic focus to help leaders build a applications; information assessment; teamwork; and cohesive, coherent education. problem solving ACE’s new outcomes model offered a Personal and Social Responsibility Exercise individual and social responsibilities through the focal point for both the planning stages and study of ethical principles and reasoning, application of civic knowledge, interaction with diverse cultures, and the ongoing implementation phase. The engagement with global issues. thematic approach has helped make our efforts strategic and efficient. Preserving Integrative Learning Integrate these abilities and capacities, adapting them to new settings, questions, and responsibilities. the goal of achieving an outcomes-based education throughout the implementation
AAC&U | Peer Review | Fall 2008 phase has added focus to the process opportunities to refocus their thinking and from UNL learned that many other as decisions have been made. Specific do their jobs in new ways. institutions were in the process of revising activities stimulating changes that are their general education programs as well occurring within the university and beyond Being Inclusive and exchanged concerns about many are offered as evidence of initial success of Being intentional means that we need aspects of the process, including transfer the approach: to include many voices in our decisions students. Sharing information proved § Specially designed course certification about general education reform. It does mutually beneficial, as change often occurs and recertification processes focused not take much imagination to begin to simultaneously at different institutions, on helping students achieve outcomes realize the complexity and enormity of the and we all want to improve transfer and assessing their progress guided project that needs to be undertaken if the students’ experience. the general education committee as it transformation to a new general education considered courses that populate the program is to be successful in achieving Being Revolutionary program its goals of an outcomes-based focus, Through LEAP, AAC&U invites § Course facilitators, selected by the dean especially in an institution with 24,000 institutions to break out of academic silos of each undergraduate college, helped students. Establishing and nurturing and align teaching and learning practices faculty understand the goals of ACE mutually beneficial relationships among an with the realities of the new global century. and engage in the course submission array of constituents—both internal and This request asks colleges and universities process external to an institution—is essential to to rethink their organization and outdated § The focused approach prompted the process. “modular curriculum, organized a century the university’s assessment team to modify the infrastructure of its online assessment tool It is far from complete in transforming the culture § University administrators seized the opportunity to sponsor outside on campus, and faculty members have approached speakers and a competitive grant the efforts with varying levels of acceptance and opportunity for faculty that would contribute to building the program and enthusiasm changing the university climate § A faculty team won outside grant Those involved with the process ago and still largely intact, which has funding to help pilot a general at UNL recognized the importance become increasingly dysfunctional” education writing assessment system of communicating with the many (AAC&U 2007, 19). As new general § The focus on outcomes spurred stakeholders involved within the university, education programs attempt to meet our decision to have the dean of such as students, faculty, admissions AAC&U’s challenge, a new question has undergraduate studies, the general officers, advisers, registration and records emerged: Who owns the truth about education director, and the university’s personnel, administrators, and campus how courses and curriculum should be academic transfer coordinator visit all leaders of all sorts. From the beginning categorized? community colleges in the state and of the process it was clear that creating Shedding traditional menu models a number of other higher learning the culture in which the new program replete with courses attached to disciplinary institutions to talk about our brand of could thrive requires including external labels, the new general education program general education to see if there are constituencies such as community and designers at UNL deliberately avoided opportunities for collaboration state colleges in conversations about the using departmental tags to avoid falling The strategic process has been both new program as well. into the silo trap. As the general education successful and challenging. It is far from In visiting the chief academic committee considers courses to populate complete in transforming the culture officers and admissions staff at nearly the program, it is faced with new questions on campus, and faculty members have all institutions of higher learning in about whether the course fits the outcome. approached the efforts with varying levels the state—community colleges, a state What appears to be emerging as the answer of acceptance and enthusiasm. At its college system, private institutions, and to these questions is that each discipline core, the ACE initiative has given faculty a land-grant state university—a team thinks it owns the truth about its worth
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U Analysis and place in the academy. Focusing on faculty to face deeply rooted fundamental programmatic outcomes can help settle assumptions about education. In the territorial disputes. face of critics who claim that the new AAC&U In the old model, arts and sciences system of general education does not Meetings colleges traditionally defined what was substantially differ from the old one, we a science course or a writing course or argue otherwise. The focus on achieving a humanities course or a social science outcomes rather than completing a course, and consequently, what was prescribed list of courses demands Annual Meeting included in general education programs. transformational thinking. It requires This paradigm is shifting. Who says reexamining how disciplines are defined Ready or Not: writing is the sole domain of the English and whether the traditional structure of Global Challenges, College department? Can’t journalism or business classifying courses of studies as humanities, Learning, and America’s Promise writing courses also fulfill writing sciences, social sciences, and the arts January 21-24, 2009 outcomes? What about science? Will needs to be expanded to accommodate Seattle, Washington an entomology course in an agriculture today’s realities. It challenges the academic college in the institution meet acceptable community to consider alternative ways standards for science-related outcomes of thinking about common theories, Network Meetings and be accepted by the broader campus methods, techniques and problems. It may community? Does an anthropology course not be an easy path, but it will ultimately General Education, achieve an outcome that relates to using be worth the journey as we engage in Assessment, and the scientific methods if it examines human discussions about intentional learning, Learning Students Need behavior that is the focus of a different which will improve higher learning February 26-28, 2009 outcome? Does a course in music fulfill institutions to better serve our students in Baltimore, Maryland an arts outcome simply by definition of its the twenty-first century. § title and home department? Redefining Shaping Faculty Roles in a general education by outcome rather than Time of Change: by subject can be challenging. And so can References Leadership for Student Learning altering the perspectives of faculty who Association of American Colleges and Universities. April 2-4, 2009 2007. College Learning for the New Global Century. have long resided in an old system. Washington DC: Association of American Col- San Diego, California At the heart of transforming UNL’s leges and Universities. Gano-Phillips, S., and R. W. Barnett. 2008. Against all culture to an outcomes-based general odds: Transforming institutional culture. Liberal education program is a stimulating and Education 94 (2): 36-41. Summer Institutes sometimes difficult discussion that forces GENERAL EDUCATION and assessment May 29-June 3, 2009 Minniapolis, Minnesota
Greater Expectations June 17–21, 2009 University of Vermont
Engaging departments July 8–12, 2009 University of Pennsylvania
AAC&U | Peer Review | Fall 2008 Analysis
Enhancing Intentionality in the Requirement-free Curriculum
▶ laura Donnelly-Smith, associate editor, Peer Review
rown University has marched to the beat of its own Fellows program to complement regular advising drummer for decades, encouraging students to forge § Increase funding for new and innovative courses their own curricular paths and, in 1969, removing general § Develop online course evaluation software that would be education course requirements. While many colleges and available to all departments and would encourage more Buniversities have since expanded and solidified requirements for extensive student feedback general education courses or a core curriculum, Brown’s “new” Brown released a draft of the task force’s report to the campus curriculum has remained essentially unchanged for forty years. community in January 2008 and solicited feedback from But since early 2007, a special task force at Brown has been faculty, students, and alumni. As a result, the final report revisiting its iconic curriculum, asking tough questions about recommendations are, in many cases, already underway at the goals of a liberal education and how students can best reap Brown, and a “Plan of Action” section of the report includes a its benefits. A report released in September 2008 presents the specific timetable of concrete next steps—most of which are framework for an updated Brown curriculum. The changes are scheduled for the 2008 and 2009 academic years. not drastic—there are still no required courses—but aim to provide what Brown Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron Task Force Goals calls “a map of liberal education.” Brown hasn’t always espoused the less-is-more approach “The Brown curriculum is really about a commitment to curriculum guidelines. In the first half of the twentieth to dialogue between faculty and students on any number of century, a general education program for first-year students issues,” Bergeron explains. “There’s responsibility on both was established, and changes in the late 1940s made this sides.” curriculum more rigid, including sixteen required subjects and The task force’s final recommendations for action include: comprehensive examinations for seniors. (Office of the Dean of § Develop and distribute a statement of liberal learning the College 2008) The requirements were relaxed to a degree outlining what a liberal education should encompass at in the 1950s and even more in the 1960s, when a “permissive Brown curriculum” offered a great deal of flexibility in course choices. § Conduct a review of every concentration (major) that Brown’s “new curriculum” was introduced in 1969. Eventually includes a departmental self-study detailing the rationale called simply “the Brown curriculum,” it focused on students’ behind its courses and how they promote both liberal educational journey rather than their destination: learning and the specific goals of the discipline Its most distinguishing feature as a curriculum has always § Develop an electronic portfolio system to help document had more to do with context than content, with the basic students’ development and educational goals; share conditions for leaning than the subjects learned. Like portfolios with advisers to ensure students are making undergraduates at other American universities, Brown progress toward goals students are expected to gain perspective on a range of § Enhance the continuity of the advising experience over disciplines and to concentrate in one; to perfect their students’ four years at Brown; add a Faculty Advising critical faculties and to hone their judgment. The difference
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U lies in the freedom they have to shape the articulated expectation that students conscious connections in their this experience for themselves. (Office make intentional educational choices. coursework is harder to measure. of the Dean of the College 2008) The curriculum calls for students “not Coursework completed within the Since 1969, only minor changes have merely to sample a range of courses but to concentration areas is highly structured, been made to the Brown curriculum. make connections between them, to use and administrators were unsure that The number of concentrations—Brown’s perspective gained from one discipline as students understand the relationship term for what many other schools call a window onto the next.” Intentionality between their liberal learning and their “majors”—has grown to nearly one has long been at the core of Brown’s specialized learning. So an important goal hundred, and the number of courses curricular philosophy, Bergeron explains, of the curriculum review was to examine required for graduation increased from but now the focus has shifted to ensuring the role concentrations play in the Brown twenty-eight to thirty. But in 2007, the that students understand and can make curriculum. “We hope to gain better convergence of several factors prompted use of it. integration of the goals of concentration a new, closer look at the efficacy of program with those of liberal education, the curriculum. The first factor was Making Liberal Education by asking concentrations to speak to how the curriculum’s upcoming fortieth Intentional and in what ways they help meet or enrich anniversary, coupled with the fact that The decision to clarify, rather than the goals of a liberal education—perhaps the only prior formal review of the plan significantly change, Brown’s curriculum through enhancing writing and oral skills, had been conducted in 1989. In addition, was an important one in framing the doing community service as appropriate, Brown President Ruth Simmons’ Plan task force’s mission. In its forty years of enriching international opportunities and for Academic Enrichment, a 2007 report, recommended a stronger focus on undergraduate education. Finally, with The most significant difference between Brown and Brown’s ten-year reaccreditation review slated for 2009, administrators decided other institutions is not the lack of required courses, to emphasize undergraduate teaching and but the articulated expectation that students make learning during the accreditation review, and to use the curriculum review process intentional educational choices to help them prepare. The Task Force on Undergraduate existence, the Brown curriculum has held emphasizing the global world we live in,” Education, which included administrators, up well to internal scrutiny. The 1989 says Blumstein, also a task force member. faculty members, and Brown students, curricular review, conducted by Brown “In the past, concentrations have been convened for the first time in April 2007 professor and then-dean of the college highly compartmentalized.” and met nearly thirty times between April Sheila Blumstein, found that most Brown The statement of liberal learning at and December. The task force’s object students completed at least two courses the center of the task force’s report was was to develop a clear statement of the in the humanities, in the sciences, and developed in spring and summer 2008 goals of a liberal education at Brown, and in the social sciences by the time of and distributed to incoming Brown answer the question, “How do we define their graduation—even without being students in August. The statement, Liberal Brown’s educational mission today, and required to do so. (Blumstein 1990) More Learning at Brown, includes specific goals what is required to ensure its continued recent research from Brown’s Office of students can use to make the most of success?” This goals statement, once Institutional Renewal indicated that, their education, including “Work on your completed, would make unambiguous of students in the class of 2007 who speaking and writing,” “Evaluate human the learning outcomes students should be completed at least twenty-two courses behaviors,” “Collaborate fully,” and “Apply incorporating into their academic plans, at Brown, 82 percent took at least two what you have learned.” Each goal is and present intentional pathways to reach science courses, 98 percent took at least followed by easily understood suggestions those goals. two humanities courses, and 92 percent for concrete action, like “Seek out courses, The most significant difference took at least two social science courses. both in and out of your concentration, between Brown and other institutions (Office of the Dean of the College 2008) that will help you improve your ability is not the lack of required courses, but Whether students are making to communicate in English as well as in
10 AAC&U | Peer Review | Fall 2008 another language.” The statement helps and contact will be more frequent,” their requirement-free education. The students—especially those with a few she explains. “And through the faculty goal for implementation of e-portfolios is semesters already under their belts—to fellows program, we’ll provide ways for fall 2009. see what academic areas they have been students to meet faculty outside the office The main priority at Brown for the drawn to and what they have avoided. and across a number of disciplines.” In 2008–09 academic year, Bergeron says, It also provides an obvious starting addition, Blumstein says, e-portfolios is to continue refining the new programs point for students and advisers to use in documenting students’ growth will already in place, and to focus on starting planning the second, third, and fourth eventually be used to jump-start advising concentration-area reviews—nine are years of study. “For us, this is much conversations and allow advisers to get “a slated to be finished before June 2009. better than the passivity of distribution deeper sense of the student—rather than Brown community feedback on the requirements,” Bergeron says. “It provides simply having meetings.” task force’s final report has been mostly a starting place for active conversation.” Brown student and curriculum task positive, she says, largely because the task force member Jason Becker frames the force publicized its recommendations in Advising and Assessment the January 2008 draft, conducted open Those active conversations are an forums for students and faculty, and important part of the task force’s worked hard to incorporate the feedback recommendations, five of which focus on into the final report. “The environment advising. They include the development at Brown really encourages open of the new Faculty Advising Fellows dialogue, especially on this subject,” program, already underway at Brown, in Bergeron says. which six experienced faculty members Jason Becker, the Brown student and live on campus and open up their homes task force member, says the benefits to students several times each month of the Brown curriculum go beyond for study breaks, lectures, and social allowing students more choice. “There’s a gatherings, as well as make themselves pervasive culture that supports personal available for informal advising. Ten responsibility, and competition among nonresidential faculty advisers are also task force’s advising recommendations students is lowered dramatically because involved in the program, each affiliated this way: “A smorgasbord goes from an it’s rare that two students have similar with one of the six houses. The goal, exciting experience to a very unpleasant schedules or motivations,” he says. “I am administrators say, is to increase advising one if a diner is not judicious and wise a far more active participant in defining contacts and make conversations about in his or her choices,” he says. “The open what it means to be educated than I ever educational choices commonplace. curriculum can become overwhelming would have been at another school.” § Students who might feel overwhelmed by and uncomfortable in much the same way the choices offered at Brown will be able if a student is not prepared with the tools to readily find advice from many different to make strong, informed choices.” References: perspectives. Blumstein, S.E. 1990. The Brown curriculum twenty years later: A review of the past and a working The task force also recommended Next Steps agenda for the future. Providence, RI: Brown Brown increase the continuity of students’ The e-portfolios, a project that is still University Office of the Dean of the College, Brown University. formal advising experience across their in the planning stages at Brown, will 2008. The curriculum at forty: A plan for strength- educational career. Under a new plan, include a selection of student writing ening the college experience at Brown. Providence, RI: Brown University students will retain the same adviser for samples spanning the first year through the first two years, until they declare the senior thesis or capstone project. their concentration, and then will work These reflections on learning goals and with a concentration-area adviser for the experiences will illustrate students’ final two years, says Blumstein. “Students progress through their programs, as well will continue to receive advising for as provide a tool for administrators to four years, but it will be more integrated analyze how Brown students approach
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 11 practice
Liberal Arts Matters at Butler University: An Experiment in Institutional Transformation
▶ Judith Morrel, associate professor of mathematics and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Butler University Michael Zimmerman, professor of biological sciences and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Butler University
he LEAP (Liberal Education and America’s Promise) The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University National Leadership Council has asked that American has instituted initiatives to highlight liberal education, encourage society give a new priority to what the council calls “the the campus community to talk about its vibrancy and value, essential learning outcomes for college students” (American and promote the liberal arts. We are attempting to break the TAssociation of Colleges and Universities 2007). These outcomes “conspiracy of voluntary silence” (Schneider 2003) that has are the ones traditionally associated with a liberal arts education: helped hide the tradition of liberal education from the public. We high skill levels in critical thinking, communication, moral are incorporating and expanding on best practices, inventing new discernment, and individual and cooperative problem solving; ones, and framing them all as part of one comprehensive endeavor knowledge of human cultures, the physical and natural worlds; called Liberal Arts Matters. We have also begun an assessment attitudes of civic engagement and multicultural awareness; and program to determine if paying concerted attention to the liberal a commitment to integrative and lifelong learning. The council arts can have discernable results in student understanding and also notes that work is needed on building public and student behavior. understanding about what a liberal arts education actually entails Liberal Arts Matters is a multifaceted, long-term effort partly and why it is important for the twenty-first century. designed to ensure that all Butler graduates, independent of While business leaders agree that student learning outcomes major, understand the meaning and appreciate the value of associated with a liberal arts education should be more a liberal arts education. Our starting hypothesis is that most emphasized (Jones 2005), there is evidence that the general undergraduate students—even at institutions like Butler with a public, current and prospective college students, and their parents long and distinguished liberal arts tradition—do not have a full do not fully understand either what a liberal arts education means understanding of either the definition or the value of a liberal or why it should be sought. A recent national survey (Hersh 1997) arts education. We are further hypothesizing that with deliberate found that parents and prospective college students had little interventions and strategies, we can effect changes in student idea about what a liberal education is and that few groups, other understanding, appreciation, and behavior. We believe that by than faculty and liberal arts college graduates, have a positive being more intentional with our students, we can change attitudes appreciation for such an education. (See also Graff 2003.) Even and behaviors, and, in fact, transform student culture. Currently, faculty at liberal arts institutions may not be doing all they can to slightly less than one-half of the university’s four thousand full- help students understand and value their educations (Laff 2006); time undergraduates are enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts faculty often assume that students understand more about their and Sciences, with the remainder pursuing degrees from four own educational process than they actually do. Therefore, it is professional schools. Our goal is to reach all Butler students, incumbent upon colleges and universities committed to the liberal regardless of discipline. We envision a time when “liberal arts arts to make concerted efforts to design strategies that effect across the curriculum” is as established as current Butler programs changes in understanding, attitude, and appreciation of liberal in “writing across the curriculum” and “speaking across the education among current and prospective students and among curriculum.” broader constituencies.
12 AAC&U | Peer Review | FAll 2008 Liberal Arts Matters Initiatives they are being collected and posted scientist and an English professor. In The Liberal Arts Matters program has on the Liberal Arts Matters site under another symposium, professors from the multiple initiatives, directed at various Faculty Perspectives. The syllabus project fields of biology, theater, and psychology audiences. Table 1 lists, by primary asks each faculty member in the college all addressed the topic of sex. The second audience and agent, these initiatives. to include on his or her syllabus for year of the symposia featured a slightly Details of each follow in the paragraphs each course a statement about how that different format. Two faculty members below and on our Liberal Arts Matters course fits into a liberal arts education. led the audience in a discussion of broad Web site at www.butler.edu/liberal-arts- The response to this request has been topics such as Art and Craft, Heart and matters. overwhelming—more than three hundred Mind, and Freedom and Responsibility. One of the most intriguing Table 1. Liberal Arts Matters initiatives developments that has emerged from the Liberal Arts Matters initiative is a Initiative Primary Audience(s) Agent(s) College Core Values statement. Written Essay contest students/general public students by a committee of department chairs and First-year essay first-year students faculty adopted by the entire college faculty in Syllabus project students/faculty faculty 2007, the statement is a lyrical two-page Symposia faculty faculty tribute to the history, value, and aims of Core Values statement general public faculty liberal arts education. It addresses not CrossCurrents faculty/staff faculty/staff only the past and present context of such Recommended Readings general public faculty/staff an education, but also what the liberal Board of Visitors alumni/friends BOV members arts means to us and to the world we GALA students faculty inhabit. The discussion, both in college Embedded journalists students/general public students meetings and in the halls, surrounding Research project general public faculty the development of the statement was invigorating for the faculty, served to blur disciplinary boundaries, and contributed The college-sponsored liberal statements now appear on the Liberal Arts to a sense of shared purpose and college arts essay contest, open to all Butler Matters site. Thus, students are regularly cohesiveness. This statement, which undergraduates, awards a prize of $1000. presented with thoughtful statements appears in the university Bulletin, may also With this opportunity, we ask students about the liberal arts. Since we share be accessed in several languages from a to consider how the content and process syllabi statements with all faculty at the link at the Liberal Arts Matters Web site; of a liberal arts education illuminate the beginning of each semester, meaningful it has proved so popular that we have type of education most worth pursuing, discussion about this topic occurs. produced and distributed posters of a with respect to future lives and ambitions, The Liberal Arts Symposium Series is portion of the statement beginning with and to the lives they are living now and an annual series of six to eight symposia. the words “Think for yourself and act the people they are becoming. The For each symposium in the inaugural wisely and well in the world.” submissions are judged by a committee of year, three faculty members from different CrossCurrents, another program members of the faculty and of the college’s disciplines addressed the same “big” that has inspired hall conversations at board of visitors. Winning essays are topic from their disciplinary perspectives. Butler, is designed to support reading and posted on the Liberal Arts Matters Web The themes of the sessions were beauty, discussion among faculty and staff across site, and the author of the winning essay is justice, truth, conflict, sex, despair, and the university on interesting topics. In recognized at the college’s annual Honor harmony. All members of the Butler this program, groups of five to ten faculty Day. community—students, faculty and and/or staff members convene, read three Each fall during orientation, we staff—as well as Indianapolis community books on a topic, and meet to discuss the distribute a faculty-written essay to members were invited to eat lunch, readings. To encourage participation, the incoming liberal arts and sciences students discuss and debate during the hour-long college funds the purchase of the books on the general subject of a liberal arts symposium. At the symposium on justice, and refreshments. The only obligation of education. As these essays are written, the presenters were a chemist, a political the group is to present a public panel on
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 13 the topic during the semester following one of whom remains with the group for the liberal arts into professional education,” the conclusion of discussions. To promote the entire semester and three of whom we expect that students who matriculate interdisciplinarity, a different department travel to specific locations for two weeks. here may already understand and value must be represented for each three The courses blend classroom and onsite something about liberal arts education. To participants in a group. Numerous groups lectures, discussions, written assignments, assess the depth of their understanding, have self-organized, including one around and examinations. The group spends we are surveying each incoming class of the theme of “empire,” another on the significant time in each location, allowing first-year students during orientation. We Holocaust in France, and one on women students to explore each setting. Our first ask about behaviors relating to and views in science. Faculty and staff are also GALA program was mounted in 2008 about liberal arts education. For example, writing book reviews that are posted under with a European slant. Students studied we ask, “How frequently do you read an Recommended Readings on the Liberal in London, Belfast, Paris, and the English intellectually challenging book that is not Arts Matters Web site; one review per Lake District with a resident faculty required for school?” Other questions are week appears in a local newspaper under member from biology. Short courses on about seeking out people who are different the college’s banner. conflict, Paris history and architecture, and or attending cultural events. We ask The college’s board of visitors has the arts were offered. Additional offerings about their thoughts on multilingualism, become engaged in Liberal Arts Matters (GALA-Asia, GALA-Latin America) are and how strongly they agree with the as well. A portion of each board of under discussion. statement, “Critical thinking is fine but visitors’ twice-yearly meeting is devoted The “embedded journalist” initiative doesn’t really prepare students for life in to liberal arts topics such as a presentation provides an opportunity for student the real world.” Finally, we ask an open- about new initiatives or the reading of scribes to travel with student groups ended question about what the phrase “liberal arts education” means to them. There is already ample anecdotal evidence of increased We are currently assessing the data from the initial administration of this survey in interest in and conversations about the liberal arts 2006. We are also surveying each cohort among faculty members, both within and beyond the during their sophomore and senior years to determine if the Liberal Arts Matters liberal arts and sciences interventions make a difference. There is already ample anecdotal the winning student essay by its author. on short study abroad trips with the evidence of increased interest in and The Board has also agreed to endow the purpose of writing about the experience. conversations about the liberal arts liberal arts essay contest. Additionally, we In summer 2007, an embedded journalist among faculty members, both within asked members of the board to contribute accompanied a group of students and beyond the liberal arts and sciences. short, personal stories on the importance and a faculty member on a two-week Robust attendance from all colleges at of liberal arts education, commenting on Shakespeare trip to England. Upon the symposia, eagerness to collaborate how such an education has enhanced their returning, the journalist published articles with colleagues in CrossCurrents or careers and private lives. These vignettes in the student newspaper and the alumni GALA, and growing participation in the have been posted on the board’s Web site. magazine. Another student journalist syllabus project all point to an increase We believe that study abroad accompanied the Butler Wind Ensemble in the visibility and importance of the opportunities can have a profound effect on a European concert tour. Once liberal arts within faculty culture. We also on the lives, both current and future, of sufficient numbers of these experiences believe that the increase in conversation our undergraduate students. Accordingly, have occurred, we will use the articles to about liberal education is contributing we have launched a program called Global promote study abroad opportunities. to interdisciplinary and intercollege Adventures in the Liberal Arts (GALA), How will we know if our efforts planning with respect to Butler’s new core which offers study abroad experiences are affecting student culture, attitudes, curriculum, opening up opportunities for in multiple locales during one semester. and behaviors? We have designed a team teaching, and bridging disciplinary Approximately fifteen students study longitudinal research project to look at this borders. course material related to each locale and question. Since Butler University declares With respect to the larger audience, are taught by a variety of Butler professors, in its mission statement that we “integrate we believe that almost any thoughtful,
14 AAC&U | Peer Review | Fall 2008 out-of-the-university conversation about students. As the project proceeds, we will is perhaps most important about their liberal education can only enhance the report useful or enlightening information college education. § understanding and increase the perceived gained from the various initiatives value of the liberal arts. By engaging the described above and those yet to come. College’s Board of Visitors, highlighting As we are all aware, business and civic References Liberal Arts Matters in the Butler Alumni leaders are looking for graduates who Alexander, N. 2007. Passionate pursuit. Butler Maga- zine Summer: 10–13. Magazine (Alexander 2007), distributing possess the skills commensurate with a Association of American Colleges and Universities. Core Values posters, and continually liberal arts education—communication, 2007. College learning for the new global century. Washington, DC: Association of American Col- updating the Liberal Arts Matters Web analytical and quantitative reasoning, leges and Universities. site, we believe we are reaching important etc.—as well as the attributes of liberally Graff, J. 2003. Clueless in academe. New Haven, CT: constituencies outside the academy. educated persons—global awareness, Yale University Press. Hersh, R. H. 1997. Intentions and perceptions: A While various pieces of Butler’s compassion, appreciation of diversity, national study of public attitudes towards liberal Liberal Arts Matters initiative have civic engagement, and so forth (Jones arts education. Change 29 (2): 16–23. been instituted at other colleges and 2005). We also strongly believe in the Jones, R. T. 2005. Liberal education for the twenty- first century: Business expectations. Liberal universities, including the University of enriching value of a liberal education for Education 91 (2): 32–37. Wisconsin system, we are unaware of such the lives our students are living now and Laff, N. S. 2006. Teachable moments: Advising. Liberal Education 92 (2): 36–41. a concerted and wide-ranging effort to will be living in the future; we think that Schneider, C. G. 2003. Silent spring. Liberal Education promote the value of liberal arts education it is of paramount importance to help our 89 (2): 2–3. to all constituencies, and in particular, to students (and their parents) realize what
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Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 15 practice
Intentionality and Integration in Undergraduate Global Public Health Education
▶ ruth Gaare Bernheim, director, Master of Public Health Program, University of Virginia Nisha Botchwey, director, Undergraduate Studies, Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, University of Virginia Rebecca Dillingham, associate director for curriculum development, Center for Global Health, University of Virginia
ublic health is capturing the energy and imagination of global scale—the sense of global community—is leading students … undergraduate students across the country, and University of in record numbers to seek educational experiences that enrich their Virginia (UVa) faculty, like many other faculties in both small understanding of other cultures ….” With increasing funding from colleges and large universities, are responding with innovative government and foundation sources, media exposure, and inspiring Pnew courses and academic programs. As a relatively young academic leaders, global public health has emerged as a new field of great field that dates back only to the early twentieth century in the United interest to students, albeit one without clearly defined educational States, the study of public health illustrates the strengths and value of goals and outcomes. While career paths are still being created, global an undergraduate liberal education that features integrative learning, public health issues do provide an ideal opportunity to engage which draws on diverse academic perspectives from across the students in real-world problems and motivate them to evaluate how curriculum, and intentionality in learning, which embeds student- or whether the solutions developed might actually work on the directed problem solving and experiential community fieldwork ground. This evaluation, at a distance or during an onsite experience, within academic programs. demands that students learn about and integrate the perspective The goal of the new initiatives in undergraduate public health of the community affected by the problem into their analysis. This education is not only to prepare future health professionals, but analysis promotes an appreciation and respect for the historical, also and perhaps more importantly, to educate future citizens. Who cultural, and political contexts that surround the issue. Will Keep the Public Healthy?, a 2003 Institute of Medicine report, called for public health education for all undergraduate students The Global Public Health Minor at the University and featured both themes, as did a 2006 Consensus Conference of Virginia on Undergraduate Public Health Education, sponsored by the At the University of Virginia, faculty are responding to intense Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences and national public student interest in public health by creating a broad array of courses health associations. Scholars recognize that public health requires that explore human health through a variety of diverse environments a broad-based knowledge about human society and culture, as well and multidisciplinary methods and by developing a global public as about the sciences and mathematics. And in addition, public health minor that includes a capstone academic experience and health education has the potential to engage students—future health community fieldwork. New courses range from literature and history professionals and future citizens—on many levels, from reflection courses about human response to disease to environmental and on enduring fundamental questions about civic responsibility and chemistry courses about food, nutrition, and obesity. human rights to the use of intellectual and practical skills, such as The need to develop a structure for global public health critical and creative thinking, teamwork, and problem solving. education at UVa has fostered the growth of a learning community Students interested in pursuing an undergraduate public health made up of faculty from the schools of arts and sciences, medicine, education also demonstrate an increasingly global orientation. A engineering, nursing, architecture, and others. This community recent editorial noted that a “feeling of enhanced connectedness on a has worked together to provide a global focus for new courses,
16 AAC&U | Peer Review | FAll 2008 many of which are team taught by faculty accepted applications for the past three developing global public health programs members from different departments and years. The students have clear and high is essential to developing pathways that schools. With support from the Fogarty expectations of what the minor will offer prepare the future leaders in global health. International Center’s Framework Program them, and they aspire to use the skills In concert with the development of in Global Health, faculty have created new learned to make a difference. For example, globally focused courses and the global courses such as Adaptive Urbanism: Water, one student noted in her application, public health minor, UVa faculty also are Biodiversity, and the Health of Cities; “Through this program, I hope to learn developing new integrative approaches Healthy Communities: Healthy Food more about the political, social, cultural, to particular public health courses. The Systems and Global–Local Connections; and economic relationships that appear to Healthy Communities Seminar is an and Ethics and Human Rights in World keep (health) disparities in place.” Students example of an integrative course that applies Politics. Through the courses, students admitted to the program often have nontraditional learning strategies with an often develop research projects or ideas extensive prior international experience and emphasis on community engagement. for summer field projects in international a variety of perspectives. Of the twenty- While a more traditional approach to settings, ranging from building water one students admitted to the minor in undergraduate courses often follows a treatment systems to providing culturally previous years, the majority (fifteen out top-down, didactic method, with faculty appropriate HIV education. of twenty-one) had prior international presenting large amounts of content to For students who want a more detailed experience. More than half hailed from their students, scholars studying learning introduction to global public health, nonscience majors (thirteen out of twenty- strategies identify inefficiencies of the global public health minor is now one); some of the represented disciplines this traditional learning style and offer available. To enter the new minor, an include anthropology, history, foreign alternatives that begin with a consideration application is required, and faculty review affairs, and studies of women and gender. of the context of the class and dominant the applicants based on personal statements We have collected information on half of issues in the field, followed by learning and the ensemble of their academic and the students in the first graduating class. goals, active or experiential learning extracurricular performance. Completion Two are pursuing masters of public health, approaches to ensure students learning, and of the minor requires six courses (eighteen two are pursuing medical degrees, one is in an assessment of these, and then course credits). The course of study is developed the Peace Corps, and one is working for a content. This approach is described by Fink in conjunction with the faculty adviser community service organization. as “teaching for significant learning.” and should represent a coherent plan As an illustration, the Healthy centered around a region, a global health Defining Goals and Objectives Communities Seminar, offered through the issue, or another theme. The required Despite burgeoning interest by high-quality school of architecture, is designed according courses include a course on health policy, students, we have decided not to expand to three phases. In phase 1, the instructor an introductory global health course, and the program until we have developed an evaluates the context of the course a capstone course with a major writing evaluation plan and assessed program including the nature of the subject, student requirement. In addition, the students are outcomes. Defining the goals and objectives characteristics, teacher characteristics, and expected to choose three electives. Many of the global public health minor remains special pedagogical challenges. Students of the elective courses were developed a fluid process, given the diversity of come from a variety of backgrounds, with support from the Framework grant the students and the interdisciplinary primarily planning and public health, and in disciplines ranging from architecture curriculum. For example, what should the instructor is trained as an urban and to chemistry to nursing. A language be the expectation for the students in environmental planner. Also, the topic of requirement, preferably one that fits with regard to developing an understanding healthy communities is rapidly evolving, the coherent plan of study, is also a feature of the fundamentals of epidemiology? In requiring a great deal of flexibility in content of this minor. Finally, a public health field addition, how should the field placement and information sources. The learning placement, domestically or globally, is sites (especially the international ones) be goals, however, remain the same with focus mandated. The student must complete identified, evaluated, and compensated? in seven areas: foundational knowledge, 80-120 hours in the field. A journal is kept How should the students’ performance application, integration, human dimension, during the fieldwork and is reviewed with at field sites be evaluated? How should caring, and learning how to learn. The the faculty mentor upon its completion. the success of our program be evaluated? learning goals provide the basis for assessing The global public health minor has Ongoing dialogue among schools student learning, since all in- and out-of-
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 17 class assignments correlate to these goals. structure for the course, with four to and methods for completion and to offer For example, the “learning how to learn” seven major ideas placed in an appropriate learning activities that entail doing and goal seeks to have students develop skills to sequence and building on one another observing experiences to activate learning identify relevant research studies and engage toward a culminating project (see table 1). and reflection opportunities. Photovoice, communities in the critique of the research These major ideas then follow an in- and an approach developed by Caroline methods and findings, and then apply the out-of-class format that allows students Wang (1994) to enable economically and lessons from planning and public health to prepare at home, but engage in team- politically disenfranchised populations to research to the communities’ current and based learning activities during class time. express themselves with greater voice, is a future problems. Therefore, the policy memo or photovoice method where participants take pictures that Phase 2 is when the major topics of report assignments are modeled in class to address a particular topic and share them the course are laid out, creating a thematic better orient students to the expectations with others to develop recommendations
Table 1. Built environment and public health, a model fifteen-week course outline
Suggested Units Learning Goals Session Topics Assignments Unit 1: Foundational Knowledge: Planning History (1) Local Neighborhood Case Study Planning and Public Health Understand public health and planning history, evolu- Public Health History Foundations tion and significant movements to present, and histori- (2) Campus and Interdisciplinary Applications (two weeks) cal and current theories on the relationship between the Neighborhood Walkability built environment and public health. Unit 2: Application: Land Use and Transportation (1) Service Learning Group Project Natural and Built Identify contemporary features of the built environment Planning Design Approaches Environment such as patterns of development, parks, public works (2) Activity Diary Health Impact Assessments (six weeks) projects, houses, and transportation systems, and use (3) Transit Use methods developed by sociologists, anthropologists, Environmental Impact public health leaders, urban planners and architects Assessments to address chronic illnesses and impacts of the built environment. Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality Water Quality Food Security Unit 3: Human Dimensions: Vulnerable Populations (the (1) Newspaper Op-Ed or poor, children, women, elderly, Radio Perspective Learn about oneself and the context in which others Vulnerable Populations and disabled, and, minorities) and operate to better integrate that understanding when (2) Debates Health Disparities Health Disparities (three weeks) evaluating differing built-environments, socioeconomic positions, social and cultural backgrounds, and health Mental Health status. Social Capital Caring: Environmental Justice Adopt new feelings, interests or values based on issues addressed throughout the semester. Unit 4: Learning-How-to-Learn: Health Policy (1) Policy Memos
Sustainable Planning and (2) Photovoice Report Health Policy and Global Develop skills to identify studies and engage communi- Global Warming Impacts ties, critique methods and findings, and apply lessons (three weeks) from planning and public health research to current and Healthy Housing future problems.
Final Integration: Final Portfolio Healthy Communities Portfolio (one week) Integrate current evidence regarding the impacts of the built environment on health with information and perspectives from other courses and/or personal experiences.
18 AAC&U | Peer Review | Fall 2008 and implementation plans. It is an effective applying lessons they learned in preceding to improve human health. The words, way to share knowledge, thoughts, and sessions and in preparation of their policy “assure the conditions in which people beliefs about a given topic. This approach memo and photovoice report, which is due can be healthy,” focus our attention on helps communities identify important issues the following week. our biological, social, and environmental and develops recommendations on how to In phase 3, the teacher and students interdependence and the need for a broad make changes. address the details of the course and focus knowledge of human cultures and the During class students review health on grading and weighting of assignments physical and natural world. UVa’s new policies and critique them with a focus on and debugging the course through a full global public health minor, as well as a particular local community about which review of the schedule of activities and our faculty’s innovative approaches to students have become familiar through the drafting of a syllabus. This phase also course development provide examples other assignments earlier in the semester. incorporates integration of evaluations at of how academic centers can foster the Students build on this class exercise by the middle and the end of the term, as well development of the knowledge and skills reflecting on discussed policies as they as periodic feedback that better assesses essential for future public health leaders relate to the particular community, and how well the course is going so that faculty and informed, engaged citizens of the they read relevant newspaper articles. can adjust to student needs. nation and the world. § When they return to class, students then discuss their policy memos or participate Assuring Conditions in Which Acknowledgement in a full photovoice exercise and end the People Can Be Healthy Development of UVa’s global health courses time by viewing a short video and outlining Overall, this integrative public health and and the Global Public Health Minor was the required memo or report submission. planning course follows a nontraditional supported by the Fogarty International Following this session, students complete framework in its design as well as Center’s Framework Program in Global readings, draft their memos or reports community emphasis. The course values Health (R25 TW007518). and submit questions for guests. In class, a community-based approach to activities students learn about sustainable planning and assignments because it allows students and global warming policies. Students to understand the people and place in References reflect on this lecture by integrating which public health issues arise in order Botchwey, N. D., S. E. Hobson, A. L. Dannenberg, K. G. Mumford, C. K. Contant, T. E. McMillan, R. J. information in their memos or reports and to better diagnose and/or respond to Jackson, R. Lopez, and C. Winkle. Forthcoming. A model built environment and public health course prepare for a field visit the next day to a problems. Without this community curriculum: Training for an interdisciplinary work- healthy housing project that incorporates approach, students might apply generic force. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. many green design, leadership in energy and solutions to old and new public health Brown, D. For a global generation, public health is a hot field. The Washington Post, September 19, 2008, environmental design (LEED) certified or concerns without understanding how to p. A1 low-impact development components. By best engage a people and place in creating Fink L. D. 2003. Creating significant learning experiences: an integrated approach to designing college courses. focusing on a single house or development, the customized solution that is required. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. this site visit helps students cement many of The Institute of Medicine’s definition Institute of Medicine. 1988. The future of public health. the ideas generated through the sustainable of public health describes why it is such Washington, DC: National Academies Press. ——. 2003. Who will keep the public healthy? Educating planning and global warming talk. Finally, a dynamic field for students who want to public health professionals for the 21st century. Wash- students read a case study that emphasizes take on a complex topic, such as human ington, DC: National Academies Press. Kanter, S. 2008. Global health is more important in a the ethical dimensions of public health health, as an integrating focus for their smaller world. Academic Medicine. 83 (2): 115-16. within a clearly defined built environment education: “Public health is what we, Riegelman, R. 2008. Undergraduate public health framework. A possible phase 2 activity as a society, do collectively to assure education. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 35 (3): 258-263. See also, public health teaching would call for students to simulate a the conditions in which people can resources available at www.teachprevention.org/ planning commission that is considering a be healthy.” The words, “what we, as a Wang, C. C., and M. A. Burris. 1994. Empowerment through photovoice: Portraits of participation. rezoning request from a bathhouse operator society, do collectively” suggest the need Health Education Quarterly 21 (2): 171-86. and is concerned about community for an enriched and integrated study of comments as well as possible health impacts political philosophy, social psychology, to the region. This class session allows and anthropology, for example, in order students to decide the best decision for to understand how individuals and stakeholders to make by role-playing and groups in society can take action together
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 19 practice
Integrative Learning: A Room with a View
▶ Jean Mach, professor of English and director of the Center for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, College of San Mateo Michael Burke, professor of mathematics, College of San Mateo Jeremy Ball, professor of philosophy, College of San Mateo
he College of San Mateo (CSM), one of California’s 110 also begins to suggest some of the challenges we face, across all community colleges, sits atop a hill above San Francisco demographic lines, in engaging, teaching, and retaining these Bay. The campus architecture, a 1960s rendering of classical students. The majority of our students (72.2 percent) are part time, columns and flaring cornices, invokes lofty educational ideals. often working long hours at jobs. Our classrooms include working TWe have many faculty here dedicated to those ideals. But adults, often with families. A majority of students also come to us teachers eager to try new pedagogies can be frustrated by the lacking college-level skills in writing and mathematics. Almost half continuation of such severe architectural structures right into of our enrollment (48.1 percent) consists of students with fewer classrooms equipped with cramped rows of unwieldy desks. than fifteen units completed, a fact that reveals a need to increase This rigidity may also characterize the college’s organizational students’ engagement with the learning process. Anecdotally, structures and human cultures. They are conjoined, sometimes teachers also report that students often lack clear goals and uncomfortably, in serving the untidy needs of today’s students. consistent motivation; in fact, they don’t know how to be students. The external imperatives of a statewide system further constrain They have widely varying technological skills and resources at pedagogical innovation. Like the stern buildings and overgrown home. They may be unwilling, for a variety of reasons, to avail landscaping that block the expansive campus views, this themselves of the resources available on campus to help them organizational architecture and cultural landscaping can also succeed. In short, it’s not easy to engage and teach our students. obscure the glorious panoramas, glimpsed by some faculty here, of A few faculty at CSM first became involved in learning integrative learning. communities, over a decade ago, out of a sense that there must be That magnificent view—of what teaching and learning can be a better way to teach. Our first learning communities were what when disciplinary barriers are disassembled and when faculty and we now call “hard linked”: two different classes with a common students collaborate in making all kinds of connections—is indeed cohort of students, taught by two teachers who intertwine breathtaking. Make no mistake, though: integrative learning is hard their curriculum in various ways to foster intellectual and social work. Often, for students and faculty alike, it is joyous work. But it engagement. Pedagogically, the results were often spectacular. A can also be discouraging and contentious. The story of integrative few examples include ASSET Development, an elementary algebra learning at the College of San Mateo, we believe, is worth telling. class paired with a study skills class that nearly doubled the success rates of students in elementary algebra and significantly increased The College of San Mateo—Who We Are the persistence rate all the way through the remedial mathematics Although CSM is located in an affluent area, its 11,000 students, sequence; Writing in the End Zone, a basic-skills-level writing class diverse in both ethnicity and age, are typical of many community paired with the football team’s required physical education section college students across the country. We value and celebrate the that has become a model for helping athletes succeed; and Tools diversity that makes our classrooms interesting and frequently for Thought, an intermediate algebra class paired with freshman gratifying places for teaching. A recent demographic snapshot composition in which mathematical modeling and reading about
20 AAC&U | Peer Review | FAll 2008 contemporary environmental and social had institutional origins: budget cuts, low Mountains, and Dead Man Walking issues gave students new understandings enrollments due to inadequate information learning communities, with even more in of the world they occupy. Such learning delivered by online class schedules and planning stages. (collegeofsanmateo.edu/ communities, we know, often dramatically crippling online registration problems, lack integrativelearning/learningcommunities/) changed the academic lives of the of counselors’ support, and a pervasive With a two-year cycle of offerings and students and realigned the long-settled “just-check-the-boxes-for-transfer” culture more than twenty instructors involved, pedagogical foundations of the teachers. that worked against unfamiliar course students can experience a rich array of But those classes were reaching relatively configurations. We tried long and hard to interdisciplinary issues and approaches few students and existed on the margins solve these problems, but failed in every as they work through their general of a predominantly fixed, traditional case. education requirements. We’ve often educational experience. The second summer, facing what integrated counseling visits and reading seemed like humiliation at the collapse of and library support into these models, The Integrative Learning our ILP project, the three of us huddled although such integration runs counter Project in a closet at the Carnegie Foundation in to institutional practice and structure. Nevertheless, those early learning 2004 to resuscitate integrative learning The “Friday Forums,” with approximately communities led to CSM’s participation on our campus. Based on the wildly three hundred students and instructors in the Integrative Learning Project (ILP), popular “Movie Night,” a monthly cross- from different disciplines gathered in a held from 2004 through 2006. (www. disciplinary event created by faculty in the single room, are videotaped and available carnegiefoundation.org/programs/index. philosophy and psychology departments, on iTunes University, under CSM’s asp?key=24) Twice a year for three years, we invented (as far as we know) what “Events—Integrative Learning” site this initiative, sponsored by the Carnegie we call the “Confluence Model.” This (smccd.edu/itunesu/). Foundation for the Advancement of learning community configuration fits Student survey results collected Teaching and the Association of American more comfortably within the constraints each semester indicate overwhelmingly Colleges and Universities, brought of our campus and has an impact on the positive experiences. Frequent student together ten institutions that were already experiences of vastly more students. It reflection work also shows that students exploring a variety of integrative strategies. solves the frequent enrollment problems are succeeding in making integrative CSM’s goal while participating in the of our hard-linked communities by taking connections: project was “to construct an overriding a detour around the technical and cultural § I am appreciative of the effort to bring vision of integrated learning at the college barriers on our campus. In a confluence light to this situation that many young through institutionalizing the learning model, any number of stand-alone classes adults are not aware of. I really liked communities program.” Unlike the other in different disciplines, meeting at the the forums because they provided a teams involved, CSM’s three-person ILP same hour, form a community around a more engaging atmosphere rather than team consisted of only faculty members, shared theme or reading that relates to sitting in the same classroom the entire with no administrator. significant issues in the world. Classes all semester. I also liked that other classes The three faculty members in the ILP, meet together five or six times per semester of various subjects were integrated in the authors of this article, began to see to participate in common experiences that the forums so that I was able to discuss that integrative learning is not limited to highlight various disciplinary perspectives this topic with a few other classmates. hard-linked learning communities—that on the themes, and students have Overall, the experience was educational it means helping students find opportunities to engage in interdisciplinary and certainly very different than connections of all kinds to make their thinking and problem-solving themselves. traditional class experiences. learning meaningful and intentional. We In the individual classrooms, instructors § I liked it because I learned how two learned about e-portfolios at LaGuardia consciously incorporate integrative and different fields could tie together. Community College, capstone courses at reflective practices. Makes me realize that everything is Philadelphia University, and integrative CSM now offers confluence tied to one another in some way, or in core programs at Portland State, to name models aimed at both basic-skills some degree. I would enroll in another just a few examples. At the same time, our and transfer-level students. Examples one because I want to find more links hard-linked learning communities program include The Tragedy of the Commons, between different subjects. struggled against a slew of problems that Food for Thought, Mountains Beyond
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 21 What We Learned provide a solution for a system that allows group discussions of diagnostic writing We learned much from the opportunities underprepared students to enroll in classes samples, prompts, and grading rubrics offered by the ILP, so we were eager to sow that require college-level skills and then contribute to better pedagogical tools in more integrative seeds across the campus watches them fail or drop out in alarming all the classes. Teams of instructors from landscape. In meetings and presentations, numbers? different disciplines visit classrooms for we tried to share the vision with our Launching the WAC program draft workshops and class discussions administrators and other faculty members. (collegeofsanmateo.edu/integrativelearning/ of anonymous pieces of student writing. We tried to think of even broader wac.asp), even more than the learning These visits, the pumping heart of the applications of integrative learning, to communities program, required us to start program, are powerful experiences for both bring its rewards to even more students building cultures of collaboration and students and faculty members. Certainly and faculty. In our campus efforts, we also evidence in areas where none had existed the importance of good writing in all recognized the value of the leverage we before, at least on this campus. Writing, we disciplines is now being conveyed to a had gained through the association with a discovered, can be a battleground in which significant number of students, and we are national project. each discipline has a weapons cache of all better writing teachers because of the In 2006, the Carnegie Foundation for opposing ideas and long-held resentments. classroom interventions and collaboration. the Advancement of Teaching announced About fifteen faculty members from But WAC admittedly remains on the its CASTL Institutional Leadership mathematics, philosophy, sociology, margins of the institution. Program. By then, we knew that students’ biology, English, and ESL spent nearly a gains in seeing and making connections whole semester meeting every week, just Developing Assessment Tools often occurred in their writing, and we talking, building respect for the different Gathering evidence, both quantitative and knew that we needed to be involved in the writing needs of each discipline and for qualitative, has been a concern from the CASTL Program to further integrative each other. When we had established beginning of our WAC Initiative. Although work on our campus. Thus the Writing a congenial atmosphere, we quickly the participating classes enroll students not Across the Curriculum Initiative at CSM, built what have proven to be useful and yet writing at college level, they also enroll an effort to move writing instruction innovative tools and strategies, and we many students nearly ready to transfer. and support into classes that do not moved into implementing them in the So we needed to develop assessment normally “teach” writing, became the WAC classes the following semester. tools that would yield information on basis for our participation in the CASTL Leadership Program, 2006–2009. Aimed at supporting the growing numbers of Writing, we discovered, can be a battleground in which students who were writing below college level in our transfer-level courses, our each discipline has a weapons cache of opposing ideas initiative’s central research question asked and long-held resentments the following: Can WAC function as a teaching and learning tool for below-college- level writers who are enrolled, along with These tools and strategies continue the impacts of WAC across the spectrum more advanced writers, in discipline courses to serve us well. Creating “Comparative of students. First, we created an online with no writing prerequisite? We wondered Disciplinary Writing Guidelines” has student survey that asks students to rate if WAC, using strategies such as carefully made the differences in the writing their own progress toward our General constructed and scaffolded assignments, expectations of each participating Education Student Learning Outcomes individualized support for students in a discipline more visible and has helped us (what students should know or be able to writing center environment, clear feedback realize why students often feel that writing do by the time they are ready to transfer). in grading rubrics, and collaboration and expectations are confusing and arbitrary Next, we designed e-portfolio templates consultation between discipline experts in different classes. We now all discuss (using the Carnegie Foundation’s Keep and writing experts, could become a those differences openly with students. A Toolkit) (gallery.carnegiefoundation. way to encourage the growth of critical handout on “Proofreading Symbols” gives org/gallery_of_tl/keep_toolkit.html ) thinking and integrative skills in basic-skills us confidence that our paper markings that the students would use to post writing and developmental writers. Could WAC make more sense to students. Our demonstrating their progress toward
22 AAC&U | Peer Review | Fall 2008 particular GE SLOs. These templates of the college are nonintegrative. In large our campus need to find a metaphorical also required reflective writing that would part, they reside within departments or closet, like the actual one at the Carnegie discuss the reasoning and process behind divisions and are focused on helping Foundation, and search for new detours. the student’s posting choices at the end of “their” students. In reality, “their” students Our story may resonate with other the semester: Why does this paper relate to are “our” students; we all teach the same campuses trying to make integrative that particular SLO? What was learned in students. A mathematics student with a learning a permanent and intentional and about the process of writing the paper? paper assignment is also an English student characteristic of the education they What challenges remain? at another hour of the day, and he or she offer. It’s important for them to know Finally, we asked our college researcher needs readily available support that crosses that, despite these frustrations, the to give us data about student success, disciplinary boundaries. thirty or more faculty involved at CSM broken out by ESL or English placement What to do? We now recognize that have moved toward a different culture level (either placement test or successful we are poorly positioned to change of teaching. Although we come from a ESL or English course completion). Later, course prerequisites for two reasons: (1) variety of disciplines, we tackle common we added a rubric to analyze students’ departmental and college enrollment concerns and share interest in each writing weaknesses, based on the initial figures—and subsequent funding—would other’s pedagogies. We value a scholarly diagnostic writing sample, in the hope that be at risk and (2) there is a statewide approach to our profession. We have we could understand more clearly what community college culture that too often watched students transformed from specific writing challenges were correlated oversimplifies students’ success as “getting reluctant bodies slumped over desks in the with lack of retention or success. through a program quickly.” We are aware back of the classroom to campus leaders, Going into the last year of the CASTL that, because decisions about funding inspired learners, and engaged citizens. project, we have already learned much are made primarily along departmental Although our experience has been that a about ourselves, our students, and our and division lines, integrative learning few faculty members alone cannot achieve college. We can now show that both is seen by many as a new, illegitimate institutional change without large-scale students identified as English-language competitor for scarce resources. Our systemic support, we are now watching our learners and those already writing at needs for research data are sometimes campus literally being rebuilt: old buildings college level gain in skills and confidence unmet, as integrative learning, once are being demolished or renovated and from the strategies and support we again, does not fit neatly into the college’s overgrown landscaping is being cleared. bring into the WAC classes. However, program review structures. Although our The architectural plans show space for an those identified in the developmental institutional-level e-portfolio assessment Integrative Learning Center. Perhaps, as native-speaker English sequence do was lauded at our last accreditation visit, the magnificent views of San Francisco Bay not demonstrate any gain in the WAC there is no support for hosting even a emerge and become visible to all, so too courses, which require significant writing free, open-source tool on our district’s will the panoramas of integrative learning. § assignments. In fact, the data show server. Through our integrative learning specifically that the WAC courses lose initiatives, we have learned much about or fail students who start with weak what our students need grammar skills at a greater rate than do in order to succeed, but other sections of the same transfer-level we also know now that courses that may limit evaluation of we have not been able learning to Scantron testing. It seems to change the college’s evident by now that WAC alone cannot larger structures and provide adequate support for students culture—and certainly who are inappropriately enrolled in not the larger structures transfer-level courses that require writing. of California’s higher We are convinced those classes must education system—to include writing assignments to foster fulfill those needs. So meaningful learning. But we do not have perhaps the dozens of adequate systems to support students in faculty now involved in such classes; the regular support systems integrative learning on
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 23 practice
Intentional and Integrated Learning in a New Cognitive Age: A Signature Pedagogy for Undergraduate Education in the Twenty-First Century
▶ June Youatt, senior associate provost, Michigan State University Kim A. Wilcox, provost and vice president for academic affairs, Michigan State University
rom its very start, the land-grant approach to higher education rather than food. Departments, colleges, and other higher education focused on intentional and integrated learning in ways that institutions once seen as “competitors” were now “collaborators.” distinguished itself from previous models of higher education. Undergraduate students, the traditional recipients of information, Students needed different skills to solve the real problems facing were increasingly expected to become generators of knowledge. Freal people in real communities. And they needed those skills quickly. Fundamental assumptions about what constituted a classroom, They needed practical knowledge accompanied by hands-on training. an academic semester, and definitions of scholarship were being The land-grant university was built around those needs, with a new challenged. The contours of the institution that claimed leadership in curriculum and a new pedagogy that were intentionally coordinated defining higher education in the nineteenth century were changing as to integrate knowing with doing, in ways that mattered to those fast as the science and technology on its campus. typically disenfranchised from higher education. While globalization is central to redefining higher education for In many significant ways, the core mission and values of the the twenty-first century, it singularly fails to fully account for the land-grant university persist into the twenty-first century. Land-grant many significant factors that have worked together to transform the universities remain committed to providing higher education to university into the twenty-first century. New York Times columnist advance the public good. Like Michigan State University (MSU), they David Brooks wrote recently about rethinking the globalization work hard to maintain their commitment to be open to the poorest, paradigm, placing it in the even larger context of a skills revolution in and good enough for the proudest. Perhaps most importantly, they a more demanding cognitive age (2008). Taken together, the two remain committed to responding to society’s needs in ways that keep paradigms help more fully explain the significant transformative them relevant and engaged. processes affecting the future of higher education.
Globalization—and Its Even Larger Contexts A Signature Pedagogy for a New Cognitive Age: As Michigan State University moved into the twenty-first century, it Intentional, Integrated, Embedded became clear that the university remained committed to its original The term “signature pedagogy” was of course coined by Lee core values while stretching and shifting in ways that upheld those Schulman, president emeritus of the Carnegie Foundation for the original values. The “state” university with eighty-three county Advancement of Teaching. Schulman noted how distinctive teaching offices now had more active international partnerships than local. and learning practices in specialized professions such as medicine and The student population represented more countries than Michigan law uniquely defined the student learning experience within those counties. Agricultural sciences were still concerned with crops, professional areas. Might there be signature pedagogy—distinctive but making a rapid shift to research on plants as fuel and plastics, teaching and learning practices—that differentiates a twenty-
24 AAC&U | Peer Review | FAll 2008 first-century approach to undergraduate We will cut across boundaries—disciplinary, boundaries. For example, the MSU Science, education in this more demanding cognitive geographic, and political—to tackle the real Technology, Environment, and Public age? problems society faces.” Problem-centered or Policy Specialization (STEPPS) program is At Michigan State University, we began issue-centered learning across the curriculum a cross-collegiate program in public policy to answer that question by identifying naturally employs interdisciplinary learning. that relates to science, technological change, noteworthy educational activities that Integrative learning asks students to and environmental science. Instead of a combined our land-grant ethos with connect skills and knowledge from multiple singular disciplinary emphasis, the program connected and purposeful learning, within sources and experiences, apply theory to emphasizes promoting change through the a global context. As we examined our own practice in various settings, utilize diverse formulation of effective public policy. best practices, we discovered examples of and even contradictory points of view, and Another “discovered” example of this new educational practices and programs that understand issues and positions contextually. signature pedagogy in action was the MSU we believed constituted a newly emerging In doing so, it fundamentally connects solar oven project. For this, engineering signature pedagogy for undergraduate knowledge to experience. MSU’s approach students carried out a project in Tanzanian education. to general education – the Integrative villages that provided an alternative to the This new signature pedagogy can Studies program – takes seriously the burning of wood and charcoal cooking fuels, be characterized as discovery-centered, challenge of helping students develop the thus addressing problems of deforestation interdisciplinary, integrative, translational, skills and abilities that promote integrative and health. While effective, it required the and contextual. Although any one of thinking and ‘ways of knowing’ across native women in the villages to adopt a set these characteristics can contribute to disciplines. of nontraditional behaviors. The solar oven an important and meaningful learning Translational learning prepares students project called on integrated knowledge from experience, it is the five together, to take what they learn in the classroom or a variety of disciplines—from sociology interconnected in a program or experience, lab and then apply it in a diverse range of to environmental science—well beyond that results in the kind of twenty-first- real-world and real-work settings. Students the technology required to build the solar- century learning we are striving to achieve are encouraged to apply new research or powered cooking machine. At its foundation, and assess. basic technology to a specific application or this was a “discovery centered project,” Discovery-centered learning encourages discipline and to then innovate beyond the but it also employed interdisciplinary and students to produce original work that original iteration or execution of an applied integrated knowledge, translated in ways contributes to the knowledge or activity skill, by using it in new ways. Assignments that made it useful, in a specific cultural of a particular discipline or disciplines. and projects that prompt students to apply and geographic context. While our typical It is research in the broadest sense—the their cumulative learning experiences assessment strategies limit how we describe finding out of something new that expands promote the application of translational the outcomes of the experience, student a working body of knowledge. Central skills. participants have personally described it as to discovery-centered learning is the Contextual learning is defined not just by “transformational” for them. development of a faculty–student mentoring location, but also by the consideration of the A newly emerging MSU program, relationship. The processes associated translation of knowledge within a specific the Information and Communication with discovery-centered learning remain environment. It requires students to not just Technology (ICT) Global Corps, also fundamental cornerstones in helping know how to perform or respond outside embodies this new signature pedagogy students become lifelong learners in their the classroom, but to also consider the for undergraduate education. This unique disciplines or professions. (See www.venture. natural, social, and human-built factors of an program combines global outreach and msu.edu.) environment to determine whether a new research. It engages teams of students Interdisciplinary learning is characterized performance, in a new place, is appropriate, in a study abroad program while they by approaching a single topic or issue from a ethical, moral, and responsible. complete community-based ICT projects in diverse range of disciplines. MSU President developing regions of the world. Lou Anna K. Simon noted in her February Signature Pedagogy in Action These are emerging examples of 2007 State of the University Address, “there Not surprisingly, when we looked across our educational initiatives that demonstrate is no problem or issue, domestic or global, campus, examples of this newly emerging the signature pedagogy that we believe will which does not require an interdisciplinary signature pedagogy typically crossed help define undergraduate education in definition and an interdisciplinary solution. departmental, college, and disciplinary the twenty-first century. In its most basic
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 25 sense, it represents a natural evolution of the new global and “cognitive age,” universities the way we work as much as the work we do. land-grant approach to higher education. It need to be thinking broadly about both the World grant sets itself apart from a previous remains embedded in the values of the land- ways in which they teach and the ways in era and approach to education in much the grant institution—quality, inclusion, and which students learn. In the same way the same way that land grant did, more than connectivity—now in a global context. The land-grant university was an innovator for 150 years ago. For undergraduate education result is an approach to teaching and learning teaching and learning in the middle of the at Michigan State University, this culture characterized by creativity, collaboration, nineteenth century, it can again lead the way change is embodied in what we’ve come to and personal responsibility. at the start of the twenty-first century. In the call our World-Grant Signature Pedagogy. same way that the land-grant ethos spread Learning to Learn in a New and came to define an innovative approach World-Grant Signature Cognitive Age to undergraduate education for colleges and Pedagogy: Being Change The challenges facing our era will require universities that were not land grant, this Michigan State University continues to not simply more education, but a different newly emerging signature pedagogy has educate students in ways that promote their approach to education. College graduates are relevance to all of higher education. abilities to discover, problem solve, and expected not only to know more than they make ethical judgments. Like other research did a generation ago, but to know differently. A Signature Pedagogy for universities, we are working on global The ability to know differently requires World-Grant: Redefining issues; at MSU those include sustainability, a different approach to learning, through Undergraduate Education at a economic development, energy, food and educational experiences that are more Land-Grant University food security, technology, and health. In a intentional, reflective, and connected, One key component of this newly emerging land-grant institution, there is always the experiences that result in the capacity of signature pedagogy for undergraduate added commitment to make this knowledge learners to make informed judgments. education at Michigan State University accessible to real people in real communities. Promoting this kind of learning was at involves integrating it into our strategic In the world-grant institution, the key is the heart of Integrative Learning: An positioning process, Boldness by Design. to resist defining these commitments as Opportunity to Connect, a collaborative Central to this process is a commitment to separate enterprises and to deliberately work project of the Association of American transform the university from land grant to toward integration, where one role supports Colleges and Universities and the Carnegie world grant. This concept of world grant was and informs the other. The Signature Foundation for the Advancement of introduced by MSU President Lou Anna Pedagogy of the World-Grant Institution Teaching. Michigan State University K. Simon, when she launched Boldness by connects the undergraduate student to that participated in the project, working on ways Design. In 2005, on the one hundred and integrated mission, not as a passive learner, to “go global” with its integrative studies fiftieth anniversary of MSU’s founding, but as a working apprentice in advancing program through study abroad experiences. President Simon called for the university’s knowledge and transforming lives. Our integrative studies program now reflects re-creation. There were seven years between Accompanying the urgent calls for MSU’s approach to general education, the agricultural college’s founding (1855) accountability, efficiency, and evidence- providing courses that are integrative and the 1862 Morrill Land Grant Act, based outcomes in higher education is an across disciplines, while emphasizing the for which MSU served as a model. Now, equally urgent call for higher education to skills that encourage students to integrate Michigan State University is aspiring fundamentally change the way it prepares knowledge. We have a limited number to transform itself into a “world-grant” students to face the challenges of the future. of courses organized by one of our three institution by 2012. A single, isolated, and short-lived program centers – Integrative Arts and Humanities, At its most basic level, world grant in one part of a university is clearly not the Integrative Social Sciences, or Integrative represents a natural evolution of the land- answer. An integrated, embedded, and long- Physical and Biological Sciences – each of grant mission and ethos. Like land grant, term culture change within higher education which was carefully developed to advance world grant involves being responsive and is clearly required. The newly emerging the skills of integrative learning in the responsible to society, but now in a global signature pedagogy for undergraduate context of integrated subject matter. context. More practice than theory, more education represents that kind of change. § Integrative studies represents one direction than definition, world grant signals approach to helping students connect a fundamental culture change within higher Reference knowledge across boundaries. But in a education, a culture change that focuses on Brooks, D. “The Cognitive Age” www.nytimes. com/2008/05/02/opinion/02brooks.html
26 AAC&U | Peer Review | Fall 2008 Research
Why Integration and Engagement are Essential to Effective Educational Practice in the Twenty-first Century
▶ George D. Kuh, Chancellor’s Professor of higher education, Indiana University–Bloomington
AC&U recently published High-Impact Educational intensive, students must also put forth more effort. They benefit Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, more, especially when they get frequent feedback from the faculty and Why They Matter, the latest report from its Liberal member, peer mentor, and other students in the course. Similar Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative. In patterns of benefits are reported by students who study abroad, Ait, George D. Kuh reports on decades of research proving that in that they engage more frequently in educationally purposeful participating in certain high-impact educational practices correlates activities upon returning to their home campuses and report with higher levels of student performance. In the excerpt below, Kuh gaining more from college compared with their peers who do not describes the high level of integration and engagement that seem to study abroad. characterize the best educational practices. Second, the nature of these high-impact activities puts students in circumstances that essentially demand they interact with faculty Why Some Educational Activities Are Unusually Effective What is it about these high-impact activities Opportunities to integrate, synthesize, and apply that appear to be so effective with students? First, these practices typically demand knowledge are essential to deep, meaningful learning that students devote considerable time and experiences effort to purposeful tasks; most require daily decisions that deepen students’ investment in the activity as well as their commitment to their academic and peers about substantive matters, typically over extended program and the college. Consider, for example, a writing periods of time. A human-scale first-year seminar makes anonymity intensive first-year seminar with twenty-five or fewer students impossible, fosters face-to-face interaction, and fuels feedback. that is team-taught by a faculty member (who also is the adviser Students who do research with a faculty member spend a fair for the students in the seminar) and an upper-division peer amount of time with that faculty member; as a result, students mentor or instructor. The composition of the instructional team learn firsthand how a faculty member thinks and deals with the coupled with the size of the course ensures that every student will inevitable challenges that crop up in the course of an investigation. get to know at least one faculty member well in the first year of Students who do research with faculty also are more likely to college, in addition to the other students in the class. Advising is persist, gain more intellectually and personally, and choose a no longer a once-a-semester meeting with a person the student research-related field as a career. Collaborative problem-based hardly knows, but an ongoing set of conversations about issues assignments in the context of a course set the stage for developing a students are facing in real time. Because the seminar is writing- meaningful relationship with another person on campus—a faculty
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 27 or staff member, student, coworker, or synthesize, and apply knowledge are supervisor. These and other high-impact essential to deep, meaningful learning practices put students in the company experiences. While internships and NSSE Deep/Integrative of mentors and advisers as well as peers field placements are obvious venues, Learning Scale who share intellectual interests and are service learning and study abroad require committed to seeing that students succeed. students to work with their peers beyond § Integrating ideas or information Third, participating in one or more of the classroom and test what they are from various sources these activities increases the likelihood learning in unfamiliar situations. Similarly, that students will experience diversity working with a faculty member on § Including diverse perspectives in through contact with people who are research shows students firsthand how class discussions/writing different from themselves. Study abroad experts deal with the messy, unscripted or other cross-cultural experiences are problems that come up when experiments § Putting together ideas from natural venues for this. But so are learning do not turn out as expected. A well different courses communities, courses that feature service designed culminating experience such as learning, and internships and other field a performance or portfolio of best work § Discussing ideas with faculty placements such as student teaching. can also be a springboard for connecting members outside of class These experiences often challenge learning to the world beyond the students to develop new ways of thinking campus. NSSE results show a net positive § Discussing ideas with others about and responding immediately to relationship for students who have had outside of class novel circumstances as they work side some form of culminating experience by side with peers on intellectual and after controlling for a host of student and § Analyzing the basic elements of an practical tasks, inside and outside the institutional variables. idea, experience, or theory classroom, on and off campus. Finally, it can be life changing to study Fourth, even though the structures and abroad, participate in service learning, § Synthesizing and organizing ideas, settings of high-impact activities differ, conduct research with a faculty member, information, or experience students typically get frequent feedback or complete an internship. That is why about their performance in every one. doing one or more of these activities in § Making judgements about the value Working with a faculty member on the context of a coherent, academically of information research, having a paper checked by a challenging curriculum that appropriately peer writing tutor prior to turning it in, infuses opportunities for active, § Applying theories to practical and having one’s performance evaluated collaborative learning increases the odds problems or in new situations by the internship supervisor are all rich that students will be prepared to—in with opportunities for immediate formal the words of William Cronon—“just § Examining the strengths and and informal feedback. Indeed, because connect.” Such an undergraduate weaknesses of your own views students perform in close proximity to experience deepens learning and brings supervisors or peers, feedback is almost one’s values and beliefs into awareness; it § Trying to better understand continuous. In addition, NSSE 2007 helps students develop the ability to take someone else’s views results show that students who receive the measure of events and actions and put feedback during or after working on a them in perspective. As a result, students § Learning something that changed research project with a faculty member better understand themselves in relation how you understand an issue are more likely to report that their to others and the larger world, and they relationships with faculty are friendly or acquire the intellectual tools and ethical Source: Thomas F. Nelson Laird, Rick Shoup, George D. Kuh, and M. J. Schwarz, supportive. grounding to act with confidence for the “The Effects of Discipline on Deep § Approaches to Student Learning and Fifth, participation in these activities betterment of the human condition. College Outcomes,” Research in Higher provides opportunities for students to Education 49, no. 6 (2008): 469–494. see how what they are learning works in different settings, on and off campus. These opportunities to integrate,
28 AAC&U | Peer Review | Fall 2008 Resources
Highlights of AAC&U’s Work on Intentionality and Integrative Learning
New Summer Institute Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education: VALUE The Engaging Departments Institute will provide campus As institutions are asked teams of academic administrators, department chairs, and faculty with to document the quality of an intensive, structured time to advance their plans to foster, assess, student learning and to raise and improve student learning within departments and across the retention and graduation rates, institution. AAC&U’s VALUE project helps campuses to define, document, The institute will concentrate on (1) leadership for learning assess, and strengthen student achievement of the essential learning within and among departments, (2) assessments for achieving and outcomes that stand at the center of AAC&U’s LEAP initiative. improving essential outcomes, and (3) preparing for educational Recognizing that there are no standardized tests for many of the effectiveness by identifying and then replacing barriers with aligned essential outcomes of an undergraduate education, the VALUE effective practices. project develops ways for students and institutions to collect The first Engaging Departments Institute will be held July convincing evidence of student learning drawn primarily from the 8–12, 2009, on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania work students complete through their required curriculum, assessed in Philadelphia. Applications for the institute will be available by well-developed campus rubrics and judgments of selected experts, in February 2009. For more information about the Engaging and demonstrated through electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) that Departments Institute, contact Gretchen Sauvey at can be organized and presented in ways appropriate for different [email protected]. audiences. A draft of the VALUE integrative learning rubric is available for PROJECTS review by interested campuses. If your campus would like to field test the rubric or for more information about the VALUE project, The Educated Citizen and Public Health please contact Wendy Morgaine at [email protected]. The Educated Citizen and Public Health is AAC&U’s umbrella project for engaging undergraduate students with the world’s major questions through the lens of public health, as an understanding of Integrative Learning: Opportunities to Connect public health issues is a critical component of good citizenship and Several articles in this issue were written by former participants a prerequisite for taking responsibility for building healthy societies. of the Integrative Learning: Opportunities to Connect project, a In partnership with the Association for Prevention Teaching and collaborative effort of the Association of American Colleges and Research (APTR), AAC&U has offered two curriculum and faculty Universities and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement development workshops to help faculty members create and teach of Teaching. The three-year project worked with ten campuses to undergraduate general education courses in public health and to develop and assess advanced models and strategies to foster students’ make public health curricula coherent and intentional. abilities to integrate their learning over time. Valuable resources from A special issue of Peer Review (Summer 2009) on liberal the project can be found in the project’s online public report at www. education and public health will also be made possible by support carnegiefoundation.org/files/elibrary/integrativelearning/index.htm. from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
Fall 2008 | Peer Review | AAC&U 29 Selected Publications
High-Impact Educational Practices: Integrative Learning: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Mapping the Terrain Why They Matter By Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings By George D. Kuh This publication defines a set of educational Published by AAC&U and the Carnegie practices that research has demonstrated have Foundation for the Advancement of a significant impact on student success. Author Teaching, this paper explores the challenges George Kuh presents data from the National to integrative learning today as well as its Survey of Student Engagement about these practices and explains why they benefit all longer tradition and rationale within a students, but also seem to benefit underserved vision of liberal education. In outlining students even more than their more advantaged promising directions for campus work, the peers. The report also presents data that show authors draw on AAC&U’s landmark report, definitively that underserved students are the Greater Expectations, as well as the Carnegie least likely students, on average, to have access to these practices. Foundation’s long-standing initiative on the scholarship of teaching and learning. Readers will find a map of the terrain of integrative learning on which promising new developments in undergraduate Greater Expectations: education can be cultivated, learned from, and built upon. A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College The report of the Greater Expectations College Learning for the New Global Century National Panel, calls for a new focus on This report from AAC&U’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise excellence to better prepare students (LEAP) initiative outlines and discusses the aims and outcomes of for the twenty-first-century world. a twenty-first-century college education. It is also a report about the The report recommends the creation promises we need to make—and keep—to all students who aspire of a New Academy characterized by to a college education, especially to those for high expectations, a focus on learning, whom college is a route, perhaps the only commitment to demonstrated achievement, possible route, to a better future. This report, intentional practices, and an engaged, based on extensive input both from educators practical liberal education for all students. and employers, responds to the new global challenges today’s students face. It describes Purposeful Pathways: the learning contemporary students need Helping Students Achieve Key Learning Outcomes from college, and what it will take to help By Andrea Leskes and Ross Miller them achieve it. The final publication of the Greater Expectations project reports on practices peer Review, Summer-Fall 2005— from high school through college to advance Integrative Learning four selected liberal education outcomes: Sponsored by The Carnegie Foundation for inquiry, civic, global, and integrative learning. the Advancement of Teaching, articles in From defining outcomes, to reviewing this issue explore how integrative learning current practices, to charting sequences of fosters connections among disciplines and learning over time, readers will find numerous cocurricular experiences and transcends resources helpful in their curricular planning. academic boundaries. Several full text articles from this issue can be found at www.aacu.org/ peerreview/pr-sufa05/pr_sufa05contents.cfm
30 AAC&U | Peer Review | FALL 2008 Realit y Check
Integrative Learning: Setting the Stage for a Pedagogy of the Contemporary
▶ Veronica Boix Mansilla, lecturer, the Harvard Graduate School of Education and principal investigator, Interdisciplinary Studies Project, Project Zero
nderlying the significant social and interacting in socially heterogeneous groups, In my view, when rigorously conducted, technical changes of our increasingly to acting autonomously in large contexts, and integrative learning embodies a more global society is a profound using tools and knowledge interactively and profound opportunity to prepare the young transformation in the very nature well. The Association of American Colleges for today and tomorrow’s societies. When Uof learning. Twenty-first-century learners and Universities too has recognized the need well-conceived, integrative learning enables view themselves as dynamic agents in for greater expectations for a growing student students to focus on multidimensional multimedia and global environments. These population. Learners of the present and the issues in their full complexity. It invites learners create complex social networks and future must be agents in their own learning, them to weigh, apply, and combine operate comfortably in them. They learn critical inquirers, able to collaborate, able to disciplinary insights to move beyond experientially in real and virtual worlds apply higher order thinking skills to real-life naive views. Most important, it enables alike. They express their views and make problems, to manage cultural complexity them to bring the very forces changing their lives public with ease. Many of these and to make meaningful connections across the planet—from climate change to learners show greater interest in the global disciplines. What role does integrative globalization, from the digitalization of environment and human rights than their learning play in our efforts to prepare young everyday life to the ethics of global health immediate predecessors. As the recent people for today‘s and tomorrow’s societies? and medical technologies—into the elections suggest, many are increasingly Seeking to overcome the last century’s classroom for detained interdisciplinary willing to organize around public matters knowledge fragmentation to provide an exploration. Clearly disciplinary learning online and from the grassroots up. New education that is relevant to contemporary too can focus on topics of present and learning presents important challenges as life, higher education and funding future relevance and do so with effective well. As the world “flattens,” global proximity institutions have increased their support of precision, but because integrative learning can yield discomfort and sharp retreat to interdisciplinary initiatives on campuses. expands the nature of the questions that local values. Virtual spaces are misused, A 2006 U.S. News and World Report we can legitimately ask in class it expands information misinterpreted, virtual identities college and university ranking found that the epistemic jurisdiction of our courses. misconstrued, social networks misguided. 62 percent of liberal arts institutions offer In so doing it gives room for a novel point This generation experiences pressure to interdisciplinary studies majors. A Teagle of departure for curriculum development: perform, to succeed, to move at a fast Foundation study of liberal arts colleges where our world of today and tomorrow and efficient pace, with little time for self- and universities found 99 percent of becomes the source of problems for study reflection or developing deep understanding institutions reporting being somewhat or and helping students make productive sense of the changing world in which we live. very oriented toward interdisciplinarity. of such problems becomes our goal. Framed Contemporary societies’ demands on While few empirical studies have measured in the context of the future of learning, learners invite a paradigmatic shift in our the benefits of integrative learning integrative learning sets the stage for a characterization of learning and teaching for systematically, learning theorists associate pedagogy of the contemporary. That is a the future. Taking the lead in the early 1990s, it with higher-order epistemological beliefs pedagogy in which systematically, students the Organization for Economic Cooperation (beliefs about knowledge and inquiry); are rigorously tooled to reflect upon and and Development advanced a series of high levels of mental complexity; critical address the questions of environmental competencies that learners must develop to and analogical thinking as well complex and cultural survival of our times; and gain have successful lives and contribute to a well- and collaborative problem solving—all key practice for the work that they will need to functioning society. Competencies range from competencies in today’s knowledge society. do as members of their generation. §
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