Seminar conducted for the Faculty of General Studies University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus

1. Teaching and Assessing for Competence in General Education:Strengthening Student Learning-Centered Curriculum Seminar conducted for the Faculty of General Studies University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus Wednesday, March 17, 2004 Marcia Mentkowski Alverno College

2. Today’s Learners • Learners are having to understand and use integrated and autonomous learning processes more fully during and after college • Each student needs sophisticated learning outcomes/abilities/competencies once developed by a few • Learners want to contribute effectively to work, personal, and civic life in diverse cultures

3. General Education, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras “General education is the study of culture in terms of inter and transdisciplinary knowledge for the purpose of fostering the student’s holistic development.” Angel Villarini, personal communication, March 12, 2004

4. Who is learning? • first-generation college students • direct from high school and working adults • commute from and remain in local metropolitan area • employed before, during, and after college • more women and minorities • English is more often a second language • low financial contribution from family • high debt on graduation

5. Current Alverno challenges: • New faculty and students bring increasingly diverse experiences • Entering students come from traditional schools or need college transition programs • Faculty need to continually reinvent in response to changing disciplines and professional standards • Higher education market is influenced by for-profits, new technology, competition for funding

6. Education GOES BEYOND knowing to being able to DO WHAT ONE KNOWS Learning experiences in the disciplines and professions are organized as frameworks for integrated student learning, development, and performance in college and beyond.

7. Educators areRESPONSIBLEfor making learning moreavailableby ARTICULATING STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES and making themPUBLIC Individual abilities or learning outcomes or competencies are frameworks for learning.

8. Abilities must be carefully IDENTIFIED and COMPARED to what CONTEMPORARY LIFE requires Abilities (learning outcomes, competencies) defined through developmental performance criteria reflect performance standards.

9. Assessment isINTEGRALto TEACHINGand LEARNING

10. Read One Five-Year Alumna Case • Program Coordinator (Michelle) OR • Manager (Jennifer)

11. By performance we denote an individual’s discretionary and dynamic action in an ambiguous situation that effectively meets some contextually conditioned standard of excellence. Such multidimensional performance goes beyond technical or narrowly specified task performance. Rogers, G., Mentkowski, M., & Reisetter Hart, J. (in press). Adult holistic development and multidimensional performance. In C. H. Hoare (Ed.), Handbook of adult development and learning. New York: Oxford University Press.

12. Students can transfer learning when it is embedded in multiple performance contexts and when they use self assessment to abstract their abilities beyond the performance. Examples of performance provide an opportunity for diverse groups to have a conversation about actual and desired student and alumna outcomes. Benefits of Assessing “Performance”

13. One goal of a learning COMMUNITYis constantlyLEARNING, continuouslyIMPROVING, andTRANSFORMING Individuals act in independent and interdependent ways.

14. “Dialogue is itself creative and re-creative…we each stimulate the other to think and to re-think the former’s thought.” - Paulo Freire Shor, I., & Freire, P. (1987). A pedagogy for liberation: Dialogues on transforming education (p. 3). South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey.

15. Activity 1 • Which, if any, questions are close to your questions? Handout: “Characteristics of Learning-Centered Institutions: A Framework”

16. Achieving Clarity About Learning Outcomes • What do we mean by the term “student learning outcomes?” • How do institutions determine learning outcomes? • What is involved in conceptualizing student learning outcomes developmentally? • How are student learning outcomes related to degree requirements?

17. What do we mean by“Student Learning Outcomes?” • competencies • abilities • key skills • transferable skills • capabilities • transferable abilities • generic attributes • core values • characteristics, qualities • goal areas

18. Alverno’s Eight Curriculum Abilities Integrated with the Disciplines/Professions • Communication • Analysis • Problem Solving • Valuing in Decision-Making • Social Interaction • Developing a Global Perspective • Effective Citizenship • Aesthetic Engagement

19. Defining Learning Outcomes/ Abilities/Competencies that Involve the whole person Are teachable Can be learned and assessed Transfer across settings Are continually re-evaluated and re-defined Are related to degree requirements

20. Bowling Green State University Learning Outcomes Core Values • Investigate • Connect • Write • Present • Participate • Lead • Respect for one another • Cooperation • Intellectual and spiritual growth • Creative imaginings • Pride in a job well done

21. Université Laval Transferable Abilities • Intellectually • Use information effectively • Solve problems • Exercise one’s critical judgment/thinking • Put ones creative thinking into practice • Methodologically • Develop efficient work methods • Use information and communication technologies effectively • Personally and socially • Structure one’s identity • Collaborate • Communicatively • Communicate in an appropriate manner

22. Minnesota Transfer Curriculum:Goal Areas • Written and Oral Communication • Critical Thinking • Natural Sciences • Mathematics/Symbolic Systems • History and the Social Behavioral Sciences • The Humanities—the Arts, Literature, and Philosophy • Human Diversity • Global Perspective • Ethical and Civic Responsibility • People and the Environment Source: http://www.mntransfer.org/MnTC/MnTC.html

23. Alverno’s Eight Curriculum Abilities Integrated with the Disciplines/Professions • Communication • Analysis • Problem Solving • Valuing in Decision-Making • Social Interaction • Developing a Global Perspective • Effective Citizenship • Aesthetic Engagement

24. Defining Learning Outcomes/ Abilities/Competencies that Involve the whole person Are teachable Can be learned and assessed Transfer across settings Are continually re-evaluated and re-defined Are related to degree requirements

25. Outcomes/Abilities/Competencies as Frameworks for LearningAcross the Curriculum • Outcomes/abilities/competencies integrated with disciplines and professions • Student assessment-as-learning • Education for learning to learn, maturity, and service Alverno College Faculty, 2002

26. Communication: Develop communication abilities by connecting with everything involved in communication: people, ideas, texts, media, and technology Alverno College Faculty, 2002

27. Communication: • Level 1 - Identify own strengths and weaknesses as communicator • Level 2 - Demonstrate the interactive nature of communication in a variety of situations • Level 3 - Make meaning using a variety of communication modes • Level 4 - Demonstrate integration using disciplinary frameworks • Level 5 - Communicate habitually in relation to discipline/profession • Level 6 – Communicate creatively using strategies, theories, and technology in a discipline or profession

28. Longitudinal Examples of Communication from Video Portfolios

29. Achieving Clarity About Learning Outcomes • How do institutions determine learning outcomes (abilities, competencies)?

30. What Students Ought to Study Biology.These lectures and readings are an introduction to principles of embryonic and postembryonic development of plants and animals, stressing mechanisms of cell regulation, relations of cell growth and division, and cell differentiation.

31. What Students Ought to Learn • Learning outcomes that reflect how students think and understand and what they are able to do with what they know “Each student will be able to apply principles of developmental biology to recognize and interpret normal and abnormal cell transformation.”

32. Broad outcomes for a course of study What Learning Ought to Last “Using principles or theories to organize and interpret information in a group” Biology “… to conduct and present experiential research in biology in such a way as to facilitate validity, replication, and integrity of a research program”

33. knowledge understanding behaviors skills attitudes self-perceptions values motives dispositions habits Depth Model of Learning Outcome: A learning outcome/ability is a multidimensional, complex integration of . . . … integrated in the disciplines … inferred from performance

34. Examples from Sets of Learning Outcomes for Social Sciences • Accurately uses theoretical frameworks from the social sciences to interpret and analyze social problems and effectively communicate the analysis in a variety of public contexts • Takes initiative in identifying and solving social problems or pursuing opportunities for organizational growth or improvement • Uses organizational theory to interact effectively in organizational contexts that require leadership of groups or other types of interpersonal interactions

35. What Students Ought to Study Social Sciences.This course is an introduction to key concepts in your field of study, and presents problem-defining frameworks and text-analysis strategies for analyzing questions you will experience in assessments and for responding at a level the faculty expect, and the level you yourself expect.

36. What Students Ought to Learn • Learning outcomes that reflect how students think and understand and what they are able to do with what they know “Each student will be able to analyze and apply strategies that contribute to effective and outstanding essay writing in his or her field of study, and will be able to develop strategies for dealing with writing essays in the context of assessments.”

37. Broad outcomes for courses of study What Learning Ought to Last “Facilitate effective interpersonal and inter-group strategies in cross-cultural interactions” Social Sciences“Use appropriate interpersonal and organizational theory to deal with interpersonal, team, stakeholder, and professional situations to inform, persuade, and influence with professional integrity”

38. Activity 2 Review own competencies for: • What students ought to study • What students ought to learn • What learning ought to last Handout: Alverno College Faculty. (1973/2002). Ability-based learning program [brochure]. Milwaukee, WI: Alverno College Institute. (Original work published 1973, revised 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2002)

39. Analysis (in a discipline/profession) • Show observational skills • Draw reasonable inferences • Perceive and make relationships • Analyse structure and organization • Employ frameworks from fields of study in order to analyse • Independently employ frameworks

40. Analysis: Developmental Criteria • Accurately explains an author’s argument in student’s own words • Critically examines the underlying assumptions or the competing claims of other authors

41. Activity 3 Achieving Clarity About Learning Outcomes • What is involved in conceptualizing student learning outcomes developmentally? Handouts: Continuum of Increasing Specification of Ability in Context: English Continuum of Increasing Specification of Ability in Context: General Education Handouts: Approaches to Course Planning Dyad Task: Collectively Defining Learning Outcomes for Programs and Institutions Myth and Symbol (Prof. Margaret Earley), Assessment of Journal for Analysis, Valuing in Decision-Making, and Aesthetic Engagement at Level 4

42. Course Criteria: Myth and Symbol • Shows understanding of myth by expressing the mythical structure of a world view as presented in an artistic work; compares and contrasts this to own world view • In collaboration with a small group of peers, prepares and orally presents an analysis of how myth structures life and perspective Handout: Myth and Symbol (Prof. Margaret Earley), Assessment of Journal for Analysis, Valuing in Decision-Making, and Aesthetic Engagement at Level 4

43. Activity 4 Handout: Implications for Curriculum, Teaching, and Assessment in Our Department • Based on what you have learned so far, what implications do you see for curriculum, teaching, and assessment in your own department?

44. Coordinating Teaching and Assessment to Promote Student Learning • How do student learning outcomes assist us to “think pedagogically?” • What can we learn about our students to assist them in learning? • How can assessments both directly and indirectly assist students to learn? • How can we assist students to develop processes of self assessment?

45. Student Assessment-as-Learning • Is integral to teaching and learning • Is designed by faculty to determine each student’s degree of success in course or program • Provides opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and ability in integrated performances in varied settings

46. Student Assessment-as-Learning • Involves expert observation and judgment in relation to explicit criteria/rubrics • Involves diagnostic and prescriptive feedback combined with a student’s own self assessment to strengthen future performance

47. Self Assessmentis the ability of a student to observe, analyze, and judge her/his performance on the basis of criteria and determine how s/he can improve it. (Alverno College Faculty, 1994)

48. Student Self Assessment • Four components or skills are inherent in self assessment: • observing • interpreting/analyzing • judging • planning

49. “One of the challenges for some students in the performing arts is to articulate their observations and interpretations in written or spoken form. Some find this difficult because they are more accustomed to the nonverbal languages of their respective art forms. In their performances they express meaning through a variety of forms…Self assessment…requires that students…‘reflect out loud,’ whether orally or in writing, so that they become more conscious of the various components of their performance.” (Chenevert, Deicher, Riordan, & Runkel, 2000, p. 130)

50. A Music student reflecting on her creating of a performance of a flute sonata by Bach: “Since there were no dynamics indicated in the score, I used my study of music history, especially reading performance-practice treatises from the period, to help me determine appropriate locations and degrees of dynamic change.” (Chenevert, Deicher, Riordan, & Runkel, 2000, p. 124)