Best Stuff – Greatest Growth
Faculty, Students, Alumni
“The
goal of the academy is to create a space where faculty and
student
learners can form a community that practices obedience to truth.”
Don Thompson
Pepperdine University
8/11/2004 11:26 AM
The goal is growth[1]
and here’s how we measure and nurture growth:
where is post-modern wisdom? modern wisdom?
our goal is to take on truth and wear it like skin or fuel
our hemoglobin with it. our goal is to
acquire wisdom by obeying truth.
truth exists a priori. truth exists without our
existence. our life/death will not change it. it will change us, but not truth!
open with a halpern quote?
Long Term retention and transferability – halpern article
immediate (are we making a difference) and long term
growth (have we and are we making a difference) – lifelong learning are both
important, but the latter is what we REALLY want to accomplish as an
institution.
the question is can graduates do things after the fact –
alumni after the fact – i.e. we have grown them. we have given them long term
retention abilities and they evidence that.
in fact, we teach to a time we do not know about (get halpern speech
notes from wasc san jose on this.)
reward structure for faculty – let them tell about their
best teaching moments and then highlight these through a learning summit or
teaching summit or truth summit
our growth plan:
1.
ask faculty to describe their (cte can help here!!!!)
best work as faculty/teachers – i.e. when do they feel that they are making the
best teaching/learning connection with their students. – best practices/best
work/shining moments/richest moments/ - when are all cylinders firing in the
co-learner pursuit of truth – gather an archive of
times/assignments/courses/bloom analysis … look for these evidences in rtp
files!!!!!!
2.
next, ask students where they see the greatest learning
leaps occurring. see if the two match?
- this is also a way to bring in the co-curricular, finally, to discover
how students perceive their learning outside the classroom.
3.
in parallel – ask fac & students when the worst
learning happens
4.
ask faculty to describe the
times/circumstances/pedagogy/assignment/class … when they feel their students
make the greatest intellectual strides. what is happening when the biggest
jumps/headway occur.
5.
build curriculum matrices ala mary allen (get her to
campus!!!)
6.
get alumni feedback on their greatest learning
moments/experiences as students
7.
use halpern as a cognitive connection/root/theoretical
basis see
the halpern article
8.
form a student assessment advisory group to find out
when students have their greatest learning leaps forward – i.e. let’s match the
faculty moments with the student ones.
9.
involve alumni too for the long term transferability
area
d.t.’s master plan
best
practice – in a course
greatest
growth – in a curriculum
can all of this be couched within a research project
framework? a scholarship of teaching paper/study rather than a wasc thing? can’t we make this into research??????
institutional research???? thus, people are volunteering to participate as a
function of their involvement in research and they get to brag a little! can
wasc become a scholarship of teaching/learning research project for which
faculty get release time/publications? ee: move to embedded, caught in the act,
case studies, students actually experiences their education and the curriculum
– kinds of exemplars
also need to look at alumni – if we really believe the
halpern article, then there is short term learning (which is what we witness in
cramming and finals – which is a pedagogy we ought to re-examine!!!!!!) as well
as transferable long term
retention/learning that alumni can tell us about. that’s where the evidence on
the latter will be found, after all. what long term learning are they putting
to use.
keep in mind throughout – obey the truth!!
so we have a 2 pillar ee plan – model the ee on halpern’s
article!!!! on proven learning theory
pillar 1
– students caught in the act
learning
exemplars while students are still here
best teaching moment question of all
faculty and students – case studies
greatest growth moment for f & s
formative
short term success – some
longitudinal evidence
case study and best practice based.
show us your best stuff.
look at the short haul
pillar 2 - alumni in the field
long term retention
of learning
summative
pillar 1 – current students –
individual and program
program - for a given program –where is the student maturing
intellectually the most. where are they growing. where are they going to the
next level the most. where is the greatest growth spot/period/ what is going on
there? when is it? timing/flow … where is the best maturing/intellectual
development happening?
why is it happening here?
student readiness? pedagogy? content/domain? assignments? what is it that pulls
it off? d.t. – when I took topology –
it was HARD!! first advanced/theoretical mathematics course and I had to be an
independent learner. I had to be become conversant in reading, speaking, and
writing mathematics. plato was right in the meno. this caused the greatest leap. I had to own mathematics. I had to
put it in my own words. I took subsequent courses and simply amplified,
reinforced, and strengthened this. this
was the push/pressure point. individual - where do you do your best work (this
may be an individual fac/student question) in your favorite course. like going to an artist and saying – tell me
about – it will get you excited – tell me about your favorite piece or the
favorite part of your creative process. fac will get in touch with that and get
excited – because we are asking them about their love, their craft, and then we
can follow up with:
ok, let’s look at it. show me
what you do. and then we can go look and then we talk to the students and
gather data. find the
creative/curricular push point. the growth spot. (as on a child’s arm/leg …)
the breakthrough here is – tell me within the curriculum it is happening, and
then wherever it is occurring, we look at the courses leading up that growth
time and ask how they prepare the students and then how do the courses that
follow on connect back or reinforce.
it’s not just about covering the discipline but about asking this
question: where is the best work happening. is this an rtp thing? or is the best moment in a class an rtp
thing?
show me in your rtp file –
where you are most proud of the teaching work you do. show me best practice.
show me when all 8 cylinders are firing.
I would rather turn the ee discussion this direction than to use their
higher ed speak phraseology. ee sounds
like: prove to me that they are learning and NO faculty member wants that. that
is an offensive approach (if I am thinking like the most vain, it ain’t broken,
naïve faculty member in this process.) If I ask you, like a neighbor or a
special guest, to take me into your back room, your workshop, your studio and I ask you to show me what
gets you excited as a teacher. where do you draw the greatest satisfaction, the
greatest sense of accomplishment as a teacher. radical idea here – we may
(hopefully we will see this) actually hear some faculty say – I get the
greatest satisfaction when I reconnect with my former students, when I hear
from my alumni. when I see what they are doing. kind of like connecting to the ciis guy who presented at san jose
- http://www.ciis.edu/ whose name is brant
cortright and his presentation on going back in time to the time/place where
you see/saw the sparks in the educational exchange/ experience/ time. reconnect
with the passion!!! we can all identify that!! and this will help edify the
faculty core. this should happen. a
little like a golf game – the shot that keeps you coming back – transferred to
the teaching setting/educ setting. we can go by and should go by – individual
course and entire curriculum, where are the things happening that keep you
coming back – look in rtp files. ask faculty. interview them. visit their
classrooms. and, conversely, where are the
things happening that are less than good, where you want to blame the
students or the facilities or the curriculum or your fellow teachers or other
agents that minimize or put up barriers to the ed process. i.e. this is a focus on teaching which is
where we must begin. this is where faculty key in and of course they do
understand the learning side, but less so, if you believe halpern. we do not
really engage in or respect or understand learning theories. partly because we
don’t have to!!! we can get away with teaching as our priority and all aspects
of the ed system/process reinforce that. everything has the currency of
teaching – units, office hours, … all done for our convenience and
payment/compensation is done on that basis.
we view our time as a function of how much we teach and NOT BY HOW MUCH
STUDENTS LEARN!! we don’t charge students by how much they learn (there’s a
concept – you learned nothing – no charge! you learned a lot – that will be
$5000) the culture of evidence should be abandoned and replaced by the culture
of engagement with the truth!!!! the truth!!! our best shot at the truth.
transferability is the long term goal – so how do we know (need halpern san
jose presentation and notes) that what we are doing now – in 4 years – has a
long term benefit/affect??????????????
we ought to ask our alums and in fact, we probably don’t think much
beyond the final exam end of our nose. certainly students don’t!! walk around
now as final exams are taking place (in 041) and see the cramming, the where are the things happening that keep us
coming back - describe the scenario
where it is gel-ing, where students are on the same page with you. there will
probably be a variety of places, depending on students and depending on course
and on year … but give me a grasp of this case study list. where is the best
stuff happening? the time/place/scene about which you are most proud. the kind
of moments you would put into a teaching summit presentation. the kind of
place/situation you would want to mint, reproduce, keep occurring. or, forget
the moment, tell me about the process you use to bring students to this place.
tell me how you prepare the soil. tell me what you do to prep them so that the
educational/pedagogical breakthrough (dare I say – !!!) happens!!!
describe the 3,4,5 cases where it is happening – this is
a caught in the act kind of thing.
if you were on trial for being a teacher, this would be part of your
evidence. this would put you behind bars!!!
another idea – for alumni – difficult one, it requires
some added evaluation material – talk to your alumni. who can we call – samples
– 4-5 students you would point to that represent some of your best summative
work as a teacher/program. students who are 5+ years out.
for alumni - what was it about your education that was
the most powerful. what is on the espn top ten highlight reel?
for alumni - what has transferred to your present
life? where is the long term retention
and transfer happening for you?
ee can begin now – d.t. needs to sit down with faculty –
interview them. (add the piece on their graduate school student experience) run
the tape. put their responses on tape.
talk ftf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tell me about when it is and what is happening where the
best stuff you see happens with your students. what excites you? what things
are going on, pedagogically, content wise … what time of the semester/term is
it? what age? what prep have they had. look at all of the factors.
weigh them all together and from this maybe, this is the
radical thing, we’ll learn how we can be better because we’ll find out – if we
keep hitting home runs on these areas (and maybe bloom’s taxonomy enters here)
then why don’t we do more of it? and we
can’t always hit home runs – there are things that, however, are effective, so
let’s find out what those are.
another way to look at it – what does it take for these
students to trust you (coach metaphor) and to hand to you their intellect and
say – here help me make this thing grow (growth is a better goal) – what is
required?
here’s the stuff I do in the teaching part of my rtp file
– and that is where the focus shall/should reside. that is where the student is connected. that is where I do my
best work. the research thing –if it is student research – is best stuff too.
intellectual development – intellectual maturity – we
want these kids to grow in this way – so what does it look like, where is it
happening, where are the milestones, (this ties to the cognitive development
article of halpern and her pdf file, both of which are posted here: http://dt.pepperdine.edu/projects/wasc/
) what does it look like in full bloom?
what does it look like for a graduate who is out 10 years? where do we look? i.e. if we are looking for long term retention and transfer …
5 years? 10 years? look in the rtp
manual for places that faculty talk about their best work as teachers. that is
the key to connecting with student learning – don’t call it that – call it
teaching connection (???) where are you
being your best teacher? appeal to
faculty ego!!!! hopefully, that is also
where students are being the best learners!!!! that is the rtp connection I’ve
been looking for … !!! make this part
of the institutional proposal for wasc and make it part of the ppr process!!!
(that’s a whole other discussion … making the connection to the ppr process …)
first - best practices – tell us where you do your best
work
second – ask them what are existing processes that they
are undertaking to measure the quality of their program – e.g. nasc – chair
kind of thing – ppr – biology… senior survey; sosc exit interviews …cmp
ask students – what are you doing to advance x,y,z, in
terms of learning. what did you do this
week to meet objective #x, #y
another creative idea/approach – have students ask
students about these things!
re: teaching/best practice – conduct a teaching summit –
and talk to faculty and find the student learning part of that is embedded in
that – analyze with rubrics the best stuff as advertised by the faculty
visit classes!
see what teaching/learning/faith connections are at work/play
ee – look at existing practices/embedded practices and
have the faculty point these out (by answering their best stuff question)
rather than looking at all data. rather than doing comprehensive evaluation
where there is a greater chance for seeing the barren landscape!!
pedagogical
– where is it? oh ye faculty …
when does it happen in curriculum and in individual class?
hopefully the students agree that this is the effect they
experience.
connect halpern article – short and long term retention – to the entire wasc review and ppr process. maybe this article is our magna carta – no, d.t.’s writing is!!!!
institutional plan will contain ee & program review –
hitting individual faculty and curriculum ideas/happenings
ee is by people not programs
ppr is: does the curri. hang together. does it cover the
discipline
ee – three pieces:
faculty: is pedagogy and learning and truth triangle coming
on indivi basis – a kind of show and tell from faculty – what are you most
proud of. when do you sense that the learning is firing on all 8 interviews.
Best stuff, greatest growth.
student: (get sga. get honor societies. get sor/frat …
get student groups) evidence from student interviews and focus groups …
alumni:here is the third leg of the stool. get alumni feedback
develop model as follows – as per knowing what students
know – national research council – national academy press – 2001 – edited by
pellegrino, chudowsky, and glaser.
p. 2 – every assessment rests on three pillars –
and then
we ask the question – does this model work? that is what assessment is about.
this link – truth triangle – is a strong one and one that
incorporates the fundamental goal – growth into christlikeness – imago dei –
development, movement forward, ... not learning as a goal
and our assessment activity is an attempt to uncover
where the connection to truth is weak.
curriculum question – where is the greatest growth spot
in the program
class question – where is the greatest growth spot in the
class
questions for faculty:
growth spot
when did/do teaching and learning really come together
(ask students same question – form sga group!!!)
hottest teaching moment
medical metaphor – get patient feedback!!!!!!!!!!!!!
also, do this with alumni – all schools!!!!!!!
student incentive –they get to provide (beyond the course
eval form ) critique of their overall learning – their greatest learning moment
and their greatest growth time in the curriculum. this means we need to engage
seniors!!!!! grad students. 3rd year law students.
talk to the deans about setting this up. focus?
interview? start with meetings and the question – greatest growth moment in
your development – where? how? what? who?
this will allow us to mesh the faculty side and the
student side and then bring truth into the center!!!!
5 wholly student groups. get their learning feedback and
their (gulp) barrier feedback ...
mobilize the patients?
co-learners. do NOT use the medical metaphor. use the personal trainer
metaphor instead.
wouldn’t faculty like to know what is going through their
minds!!! it should be a PLUS for us to know what students think.
we can also check on the mission sinking in - purpose, service, and leadership. can i get this going by monday for the
ufac???????
greatest connection to each mission piece might turn out
to be:
service: step
forward day
leadership:
watching p. 97 or prioritization activities
purpose:
students can tell US how they want to be reviewed,
assessed in classes and curriculum ... starts the conversation with them about
the ppr process
radical presence book – good part of the triangle ...
look at student evals too. where do the students say the
best stuff is happening? is this data
reliable?
faculty focus – best practice & greatest growth (student
and curriculum level questions)
current student focus – same – via student groups –
mention this to ufac
alumni focus – same
use three areas:
program g & o
faculty best and greatest
student/alumni response
truth at center of all
example – look at luckman teachers, look at best
teachers, look at rtp’s highest! see
rtp files!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
janet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
get people to tell their stories (fac & students)
because pedagogically, this is what
teaching is. we therefore are doing assessment in the way that teaching itself
is done, by telling stories and asking for stories ... we must practice in the
assessment process what we expect to see happening in our educational
community.
do the brain dump of all places and ways that we are
currently gathering data about growth. change the language to growth plan. what
are we growing and what have we grown. this is a cultural and a community
thing.
truth is apprehended as story. teaching is story.
curriculum is story. learning is story.
so, assessment should be too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and it begins with an educational vision – a
cognitive/spiritual/emotional model
another idea – we have just recognized (may 1) four
outstanding teachers – heffernan, perrin, salas, misch. i should interview them to find out how they
do it.
i should find out what they do. what techne’ they apply.
when are their best moments. or, as
parker palmer says, it is not about
technique but about finding the best way for you to be genuinely yourself
with the students, that is when ee happens. when authenticity shows up!!! moral
– avoid techne at all costs – see neil postman and frank novak’s favorite
author. techne is the end.