Learning Reconsidered:

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• Learning Reconsidered
• Where is Our Profession Headed?
• Jeanne S. Steffes, Ph.D.
• President, ACPA College Student Educators
  International
• Associate Vice President, Student Affairs
• Syracuse University

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• THE CURRENT CONTEXT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

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• The Shift to Student Learning
• The 1980s focus on teaching
• The 1980s-1990s assessment movement
• Alverno
• Identification of College Outcomes

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• The Shift to Student Learning
• Wingspread Group on Higher Education (1993).
• An American Imperative Higher Expectations for
  Higher Education
• Robert Barr and John Tagg (1995) AAHEs Change
  Magazine
• From Teaching to Learning A New Paradigm for
  Undergraduate Education

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• The Shift to Student Learning
• American Association of Higher Educations
  powerful pedagogues
• Collaborative learning
• Service learning
• Action learning

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The Shift to Student Learning

• The Student Learning Imperative
• (ACPA 1994)
• Principles of Good Practice in Student Affairs
  (ACPA and NASPA 1997)
• Powerful Partnerships (AAHE/ACPA/NASPA Joint
  Task Force 1998)

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The Shift to Student Learning

• Greater Expectations
• (AACU 2002)
• Students as
• The empowered learner
• The informed learner
• The responsible learner

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• Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions
• adopted May 2003

• What an accrediting commission should reasonably
  expect of an institution
• Compilation of evidence.
• Evidence of student learning is derived from
  multiple sources, such as courses, curricula, and
  co-curricular programming, and includes effects
  of both intentional and unintentional learning
  experiences. Evidence collected from these
  sources is complementary and portrays the impact
  on the student of the institution as a whole.

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• What Does Learning Reconsidered Do?

Learning Reconsidered offers a campus-wide
focus on the student experience that Introduces
new ways of understanding learning and
development as intertwined, inseparable elements
of the student experience. Advocates for
transformative education a holistic process of
learning that places the student at the center of
the learning experience.

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• Learning ReconsideredA Campus-Wide Focus on the
  Student ExperienceAmerican College Personnel
  AssociationNational Assoc. of Student Personnel
  Admin. 2004

Learning is a comprehensive, holistic,
transformative activity that integrates academic
learning and student development, processes that
have often been considered separate, and even
independent of each other.

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• Learning ReconsideredA Campus-Wide Focus on the
  Student ExperienceAmerican College Personnel
  AssociationNational Assoc. of Student Personnel
  Admin. 2004

Learning, as it has historically
beenunderstood, is included in a much larger
context that requires consideration of what
students know, who they are, what their values
and behavior patterns are, and how they see
themselves contributing to and participating in
the world in which they live

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• Learning ReconsideredA Campus-Wide Focus on the
  Student ExperienceAmerican College Personnel
  AssociationNational Assoc. of Student Personnel
  Admin. 2004
• Learning, development and identity formation can
  no longer be considered as separate from each
  other, but rather that they are interactive and
  shape each other as they evolve.

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• A Goal of
• Higher Education
• To produce intentional learners who can adapt
  to new environments, integrate knowledge from
  different sources and continue learning
  throughout their lives
• Possible Mandate?-Spellings Commission

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Basic Supposition

• To support todays
• learning outcomes
• The focus of education must shift from
  information transfer to identity development
  (transformation).

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Learning Reconsidered

• The most important factor is that student
  development education always occurs in the active
  context of the students' lives.

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Kegan

• Self-Authorship
• Orders of Consciousness
• Cognitive
• Intrapersonal
• Interpersonal

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The Task Before Us!

• If we expect students to become empowered
  through the mastery of intellectual and practical
  skills" informed by knowledge and responsible
  for their educationswe must make transformative
  education accessible to all students.

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Student Affairs Role is to Inhabit the Gap

• data --gt
• information--gt
• knowledge--gt
• understanding--gt
• wisdom--gt
• being and action
• Komives, Inhabit the Gap, (2000)

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Learning ReconsideredA Campus-Wide Focus on the
Student ExperienceAmerican College Personnel
AssociationNational Assoc. of Student Personnel
Admin. 2004

• It is quite realistic to consider the entire
  campus as a learning community in which student
  learning experiences can be mapped throughout the
  environment to deepen the quality of learning.

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Learning ReconsideredA Campus-Wide Focus on the
Student ExperienceAmerican College Personnel
AssociationNational Assoc. of Student Personnel
Admin. 2004

• Student affairs is integral to the learning
  process because of the opportunities it provides
  students to learn through
• action, contemplation, reflection and emotional
  engagement as well as information acquisition.

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Transformative Education

• Transformative education places the student at
  the core of the learning experience.
• Student Affairs Professionals map the campus
  learning environment by identifying interactions
  and relationships among the social, academic, and
  institutional contexts of student learning.

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No single area of experience is solely
responsible for producing these college outcomes

• Student Affairs Academic Affairs partnerships
• Student Affairs learning and development
  opportunities
• Academic Affairs learning and development
  opportunities

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Establishing Learning Outcomes

• Each institution will take its own approach to
• emphasizing specific outcomes to various
• degrees
• 1. Cognitive complexity The ability to think
  critically and reflectively in a manner that
  integrates aspects of emotion, cognition, and
  identity in an intellectual manner.
• 2. Knowledge acquisition, integration, and
  application The process of understanding
  knowledge in a range of disciplines, connecting
  this knowledge to ideas and experiences, and
  relating and reflecting upon this knowledge in
  daily life.

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Establishing Learning Outcomes

• 3. Humanitarianism Developing a cultural
  competency of understanding and appreciating
  human differences and exhibiting socially
  responsible behavior
• 4. Civic engagement Exhibiting a commitment to
  public life through participation in communities
  of practice.
• 5. Inter- and intrapersonal competence
  Developing the means to realistically appraise
  personal attributes such as  identity, self
  esteem, confidence, ethics and integrity, and
  spiritual awareness by setting goals, developing
  meaningful relationships, collaborating with
  others, and challenging oneself to work with
  people who are different.

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Establishing Learning Outcomes

• 6. Practical competence Learning to communicate
  effectively, become economically self-sufficient
  and vocationally competent, maintain a healthy
  lifestyle, prioritize leisure pursuits, and live
  a purposeful life.
• 7. Persistence and academic achievement
  Managing the college experience to achieve
  personal and academic success, including degree
  attainment.

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Student Outcomes -1(grid- dim)
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Student Outcomes 1a (grid-dim)
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Student Outcomes 2 (activity)
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Student Outcomes 2a (activity)
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Student Outcomes 3
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Common Skills

• While professionals in specialty areas most
  likely will possess advanced degrees in their
  area of expertise, the expectation must be that
  they obtain a basic understanding of
• the environment in which they work,
• the students with whom they work, and
• the desired outcomes of their work
• All contextually driven

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Learning ReconsideredA Campus-Wide Focus on the
Student ExperienceAmerican College Personnel
AssociationNational Assoc. of Student Personnel
Admin. 2004

• In order to achieve this goal, every aspect
  of student life must be examined and a new
  configuration of learning processes and outcomes
  created.
• All of the resources of the campus must be
  brought to bear on the students learning process
  and learning must be reconsidered and places
  within an active context

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• Speaking of Learning
• in the Active Context

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Sustainability as a way to frame Learning
Reconsidered
Healthy Planet, Economy, Social System
(The Triple Bottom Line)
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Sustainability Defined

• Meeting the needs of the present
• without compromising the ability of
• future generations to meet their own needs
• World Commission on Env. and Development.
  (1987). Our Common Future. England Oxford
  University Press.

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A New Decade/Generation Unfolds

• The United Nations has declared 2005-2014 a
  Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
• Inconvenient Truth/Al Gore

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Why Sustainability Now?

• Human presence on a global scale/3B
• All living systems in long term decline at
  unprecedented and accelerating rate
• Unprecedented growth in population and
  consumption
• Gap between rich and poor accelerating

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Why is Education for Sustainable
Development such a high priority in the U.S.?

• Much of the U.S. public doesnt know that we are
  exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet.
  (www.myfootprint.org)
• All of the life supporting ecosystems are in
  decline (http//www.worldwatch.org/topics/nature)
• The U.S. has approximately 5 of the worlds
  population and is consuming 25 of the worlds
  resources. (Jucker, Our Common Illiteracy
  Education as If the Earth and People Mattered,
  Peter Lang Publishers)

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Why is Education for Sustainable
Development such a high priority in the U.S.?

• Public doesnt know we can reduce human
  suffering, environmental degradation and social
  injustice now while building stronger economies
• A rapid shift in mindset is needed and education
  is the key.

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Challenges and Answers to Sustainability

• Challenges
• Already busy
• Dont know this stuff
• Issues are complex and systematic

• Answers
• Use national /natural resources
• Learn from other institutions
• Use students and staff to help you learn, grow,
  and implement

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Key Places and Spaces for Integration

• Mission
• Strategic Plan
• Budget
• Orientation
• Campus Map and Signage
• Building Policies
• Operations and Purchasing Policies

• Student Life
• Residential Living
• Infused throughout curricula
• First Year Experience
• Gen Ed Core
• Curricula Review
• Community Partnerships

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Where Does This all Fit?

• What do our students need to be successful in
  their adult roles of career person, family member
  and community member? (integrative life plan)
• Making invisible impacts visible
• Practicing sustainability on campus and in
  external communities connected to student
  learning

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Lots of Institutions Have Started but generally
Student Affairs has not been at the table for
these discussions!(Procurement, Food Service,
Facilities, Energy)

• Gettysburg College Immersion Projects,
  off-campus educational service program (social
  systems)
• Miami-University of Ohio -Sustainable Regions
  Project (water environment)
• Drexel University Overseas Service Learning
  Ecuador, India, Israel (economy, social systems)

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Institutional Snapshots

• SUNY- Stonybrook minor in community service
  learning (project hunger and homelessness (social
  systems and economy, environment)
• Hood College Strong Women of Today and Tom.
  (Economy, social systems)
• American University Environmental Issues
  Project Team (all)

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Institutional Snapshots

• UDelaware Web Presence as a part of the
  learning/teaching framework and connected to
  Residential Curriculum (all)
• Washington University/and St. Louis- Center to
  Social Development (all)
• Syracuse University LEED for all 10 million,
  local foods (economy)

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Sustainability Tools for Exercise

• Sustainability Primer
• Learning Outcomes
• Tool Kit

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Student Outcomes Exercise

• Review the materials Sustainability tool kit
  ideas
• Use LR 1 Student Outcomes Grid to work with group
  to fill in activities that respond to
  sustainability activities- use tool kit as a
  reference or come up with your own!

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Student Outcomes Exercise

• If time permits, review Sustainability learning
  outcomes as a specific example to frame a
  residential curriculum (economy, environment,
  social justice)
• Can be used as a companion document (mapping
  experience and for the stand alone outcomes)

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Assessing Student Learning

• College Student Educators Need To
• Lead efforts to assess overall student learning
  and to document the role of diverse learning
  experiences in achieving college learning
  outcomes.
• Identify activities that contribute to learning
  outcomes.
• Design new structures and systems to support
  transformative learning.
• Provide key knowledge about students and
  learning.

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LR Recommendations

• To achieve excellence in student learning and
  promote accountability in the assessment of
  learning outcomes, our institutions of higher
  education should

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LR Recommendations

• Determine, specify, measure, and assess their
  intended student outcomes.
• Establish routine ways to document students
  experience as learners.
• Map the campus environment for interactive,
  integrated learning experiences.

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LR Recommendations

• Identify and integrate community-based learning
  experiences.
• Establish opportunities for students to make
  meaning of what they are learning.
• Support the comprehensive, holistic learning of
  graduate and professional students. (increasing
  national energy)

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Acknowledgements

• Susan Komives
• Susan Salvador
• Debra Rowe
• Anthony Cortese
• Kathleen Kerr
• ACPA Sustainability Taskforce
• Authors of Learning Reconsidered and LR 2
• Thank You!

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Thank you for all you do for your students!
See you in Orlando! Bring your suntan lotion!