Conversation with CSU LA Faculty: New Directions for General Education

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Conversation with CSU LA Faculty New Directions
for General Education
November 21, 2008 Susan Albertine Senior
Director, LEAP States Initiative
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• The problem for progressive education is What
  is the place and meaning of subject-matter and of
  organization within experience? How does
  subject-matter function?
• John Dewey
• Experience Education
• 1938

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What Is Deep Learning?

• Attend to underlying meaning as well as surface
  content
• Integrate and synthesize ideas
• Discern patterns of evidence
• Apply knowledge in different situations
• View issues from multiple perspectives
• Source Laird, Nelson, et al. The Effects of
  Discipline on Deep Approaches to Student Learning
  and College Outcomes,
• Research in Higher Education (in press).

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What Is LEAP?

• A ten-year campus action and advocacy initiative
  to champion the value of a liberal education. The
  initiative focuses attention on campus practices
  that foster essential learning outcomes for all
  students, whatever their chosen field of study.
  LEAP shines a spotlight on ways that campuses
  employ high impact practices and enact principles
  of excellence that ensure success for all
  students.

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• Setting the Context
• The World Is Demanding More

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The World Is Demanding More

• Global economy in which innovation is key to
  growth and prosperity
• Rapid scientific and technological innovations
  changing workplace and society
• Global interdependence and increasingly complex
  cross-cultural interactions
• Changes in the balance of economic and political
  power
• Fragility of democratic institutions and
• decline in civic engagement

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The World Is Demanding More

• Liberal Education has always been valued for
  its role in preparing students for democratic
  participation and personal fulfillment. But in
  todays knowledge economy, it has also become the
  must-have for economic opportunity and
  professional success.
• Carol Geary Schneider
• President, AACU

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Liberal Education in the Twentieth Century
What an option for the fortunate
How through studies in arts and sciences disciplines (the major) and/or through general education
Where liberal arts colleges colleges of arts and sciences in larger institutions
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Liberal Education in the Twenty-First Century
What a necessity for all students
How through studies that emphasize the essential learning outcomes across the entire educational continuumfrom school through collegeat progressively higher levels of achievement (recommended)
Where all schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities, as well as across all fields of study (recommended)
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Liberal Education The Essential Aims and Outcomes

• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical
  and Natural World
• Intellectual and Practical Skills
• Personal and Social Responsibility
• Integrative Learning

Narrow Learning Is Not Enough!
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Educators ViewsThe Essential Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and
  Natural World
• Through study in the sciences and mathematics,
  social sciences, humanities, histories,
  languages, and the arts
• Focused by engagement with big questions, both
  contemporary and
• enduring.
• Intellectual and Practical Skills, including
• Inquiry and analysis
• Critical and creative thinking
• Written and oral communication
• Quantitative literacy
• Information literacy
• Teamwork and problem solving
• Practiced extensively, across the curriculum, in
  the context of
• progressively more challenging problems,
  projects, and standards for
• performance.

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Educators ViewsThe Essential Learning Outcomes

• Personal and Social Responsibility, including
• Civic knowledge and engagementlocal and global
• Intercultural knowledge and competence
• Ethical reasoning and action
• Foundations and skills for lifelong learning
• Anchored through active involvement with diverse
  communities and real
• world challenges.
• Integrative and Social Responsibility, including
• Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across
  general and specialized studies
• Demonstrated through the application of
  knowledge, skills, and
• responsibilities to new settings and complex
  problems.

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We canand shouldprovide every student with
a liberal educationnot just some of them.
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In a democracy that is diverse, globally
engaged, and dependent on citizen responsibility,
all students need an informed concern for the
larger good to renew our fractured commons.
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In an economy fueled by innovation, the
capabilities developed through a liberal
education have become Americas most valuable
economic asset.
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Employers Express Concern about Skill Level of
College Graduates

• 63 of employers agree that too many recent
  college graduates do not have the skills to be
  successful in todays global economy.
• Source How Should Colleges Prepare Students to
  Succeed in Todays Global Economy? (AACU and
  Peter D. Hart Research, 2007)

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Global Knowledge and Skills

• Fewer than 13 of college students achieve basic
  competence in a language other than English
• Fewer than 34 of college students earn credit
  for an international studies class of those who
  do, only 13 take more than four classes
• Fewer than 10 of college students participate in
  study abroad programs
• Between 5 and 10 of college students meet all
  criteria for global competence

Clifford Adelman, Global Preparedness of
Pre-9/11 College Graduates what the US
Longitudinal Studies Say, Tertiary Education and
Management 10 (2004) 243
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Employers ViewsPercentage of Employers Who
Want Colleges to Place More Emphasis on
Essential Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and
  Natural World
• Science and Technology 82
• Global Issues 72
• The role of the US in the world 60
• Cultural values and traditions (U.S./global) 53
• Intellectual and Practical Skills
• Teamwork skills in diverse groups 76
• Critical thinking and analytic reasoning 73
• Written and oral communication 73
• Information literacy 70
• Creativity and innovation 70
• Complex problem solving 64
• Quantitative reasoning 60

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Employers ViewsPercentage of Employers Who
Want Colleges to Place more Emphasis on
Essential Learning Outcomes

• Personal and Social Responsibility
• Intercultural competence (teamwork in diverse
  groups) 76
• Intercultural knowledge 72
• Ethics and values 56
• Cultural values and traditions (U.S./global) 53
• Integrative Learning
• Applied knowledge in real-world settings 73

Note These findings are taken from a survey of
employers commissioned by AACU an conducted by
Peter D. Hart Associates in November and December
2006. For a full report on the survey and its
complete findings, see www.aacu.org/leap
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Employers Evaluate College Graduates
Preparedness in Key Areas
Very well prepared(8-10 ratings) 39 38 38 35
32 30 28 24 22 26 23 18
Not well prepared(1-5 ratings) 17 19 19 21 2
3 23 26 30 31 37 42 46
Meanrating 7.0 6.9 6.9 6.7 6.7 6.6 6.5 6.3 6.3 6
.1 5.9 5.7
Teamwork Ethical judgment Intercultural
skills Social responsibility Quantitative
reasoning Oral communication Self-knowledge Adapta
bility Critical thinking Writing Self-direction Gl
obal knowledge
ratings on 10-point scale 10 recent college
graduates are extremely well prepared on each
quality to succeed in entry level positions or
be promoted/advance within the company
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• ETS Reports the Following
• on Intellectual Skills
• Seniors proficient in critical thinking
  6
• Seniors proficient at level 3 writing 11
• Seniors proficient at level 3 math 8

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NSSE 2006 Students Reporting Small or
No Gains in the Following Areas Personal and
Social Responsibility Community-based project
83 Learning about others from different
economic, social, racial, or ethnic
backgrounds 56 Developing a code of
ethics 45
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It is not possible to squeeze all these
important aims in the general education program
alone. The majors must address them as well.
College Learning for the New Global Century
Executive Summary, Association of American
Colleges and Universities, 2007, page 5.
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Raising Student Achievement across the Liberal
Arts and Professional Programs
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Aims/Outcomes Addressed across the Curriculum

• First to Final Year
• Integrating Liberal and Professional Learning
• Curriculum with Co-Curriculum
• Assessments That Deepen Learning
• Sustained Focus on Underserved
  Students

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The Crucial Role of High-Impact Educational
Practices

• First-Year Seminars and Experiences 
• Common Intellectual Experiences
• Learning Communities
• Writing-Intensive Courses
• Collaborative Assignments and Projects
• Undergraduate Research
• Diversity/Global Learning
• Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
• Internships
• Capstone Courses and Projects

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• High Impact Practices
• What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why
  They Matter
• by George D. Kuh
• October 2008, www.aacu.org

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Who Is MoreLikely to Participate?

• Undergraduate Research (for example)
• Those who
• attend more selective colleges
• attend private colleges
• Asian or White
• enrolled full-time
• college educated parents
• under 24 years old
• Source National Survey of Student Engagement
  (2007).
• Experiences That Matter Enhancing Student
  Learning and Success.

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Colleges and Universities ARE Responding
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Wagner College(Staten Island, NY)

• The Practical Liberal Arts
• Issue-centered integrative learning communities
  in first year, intermediate years, and capstone
  projects
• Organized around big questions or contemporary
  problems (e.g. environmental sustainability,
  justice)
• All include academic and experiential,
  field-based learning
• All include reflective tutorial with emphasis on
  writing and integration
• Senior year capstone project linked to students
  major includes field experience

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Portland State University

• University Studies
• Four-year general education program with 4 broad
  goals inquiry and critical thinking
  communication, diversity of human experience, and
  ethics and social responsibility
• culminating senior capstone involving
  community-based learning and interdisciplinary
  teams
• capstone assessed for cross-cutting skills

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University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Joint Liberal Arts and Preprofessional Degree in
  Global Studies
• Developed as a partnership between School of
  Letters and Sciences and the School of Business
• Students choose among tracks or field
  concentrations
• Global Management
• Global Cities
• Global Classrooms
• Global Security
• Global Communications
• Interdisciplinary core curriculum
• Semester abroad and international internships
• Capstone projects
• Leads to joint BA degree from Pre-professional
  school and School of Letters and Sciences

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Worcester Polytechnic Institute

• Project-Based Curricula Connecting Technical and
  Liberal Arts and Sciences Fields
• Technical institution, but with a curriculum
  anchored in the liberal arts
• Project-based curricular structure for
  undergraduate programs in engineering, science,
  and management
• Includes a thematic course of study in a specific
  humanities/arts area
• Major Qualifying Projectprofessional level
  application in team-based learning environment
• Interactive Qualifying Project connects technical
  studies to work in humanities/social sciences
• Study-abroad opportunities to fulfill these
  project
• requirements

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LaGuardia Community College

• Electronic Portfolios
• Electronic collections of academic work products
  and student reflections on their learning
• Implemented in 2003 now includes more than 8,000
  degree seeking students
• Designed to help students connect classroom,
  career, and personal goals and experiences
• Used to assess cross cutting skills
• Rubrics for assessment developed so far in
  Critical Literacy, Oral Communication, and
  Information Literacy
• Selected schools building e-portfolios into their
  requirementsFine Arts, Human Services,
  Accounting and Managerial Studies
• Research shows that e-portfolios help students
• deepen engagement with critical thinking,
  writing,
• and integration

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In BriefThe Changes We Need

• More big-picture thinking in the professions
  and more real-world application in the liberal
  arts and sciences.

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Three State Systems Join LEAP

• California State University System
• Oregon University System
• University of Wisconsin System

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LEAP Is a Movement To Learn More

• Visit www.aacu.org/leap
• And join the Campus Action Network

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We canand shouldprovide all students with
the decisive advantage of a liberal educationnot
just some of them.
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Frequently Confused Terms

• Liberal Education An approach to college
  learning that empowers individuals and prepares
  them to deal with complexity, diversity and
  change.  It emphasizes broad knowledge of the
  wider world (e.g science, culture and society) as
  well as in-depth achievement in a specific field
  of interest.  It helps students develop a sense
  of social responsibility as well as strong
  intellectual and practical skills that span all
  areas of study, such as communication, analytical
  and problem-solving skills, and includes a
  demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and
  skills in real-world settings.
• Liberal Arts Specific disciplines (e.g., the
  humanities, sciences, and social sciences)
• Liberal Arts Colleges A particular
  institutional type often small, often
  residential that facilitates close interaction
  between faculty and students, while grounding its
  curriculum in the liberal arts disciplines.
• Artes Liberales Historically, the basis for the
  modern liberal arts the quadrivium (arithmetic,
  geometry, astronomy, and music) and the trivium
  (grammar, logic and rhetoric).
• General Education The part of a liberal
  education curriculum shared by all students. It
  provides broad exposure to multiple disciplines
  and forms the basis for developing important
  intellectual and civic capacities. General
  education can take many forms.

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Engaged LearningExperiential Learning

• A philosophy of learning, with characteristic
  pedagogies and activities or practices
• Experiential learning is an aim and outcome of
  active, engaged pedagogy
• Characterized by high levels of personal
  investment
• Often outside the traditional classroom

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• Learning beyond acquisition of content
• Developing complex cognitive domains
• Fostering personal responsibility
• Emphasizing reflection
• Building life skills
• Fostering well-being civic development

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