tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54432373664639171402024-03-13T05:27:22.913-05:00DCCCD Significant Learning ExperiencesA Blog of Insights and Ideas for LEADING LEARNERS ... instructors, course designers, and librarians, administrators and friends.Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-24774894598408850272010-06-28T19:22:00.007-05:002010-06-28T20:00:12.794-05:00Teaching Students Academic IntegrityI teach online. I require students to defend their opinions about cases on 5 assignments. I encourage them to use and cite the textbook and other sources for evidence, so that they learn to evaluate evidence and justify their opinions and conclusions. I offer extra credit for those who go to the writing lab and offer to read rough drafts to show them how to cite and write; at best 10% in a given class will take me up on my offer and help themselves out. I seek to promote two things with this tactic: 1) significant learning; 2) academic integrity.<br /><br />I just had yet another case of a student (who did not seek any help) plagiarizing by pasting personal opinions found at other online community-based sites and at essay production sites while filling in personal fill-in-the-blank spots with current information. This student did defend the actions as thinking it was okay as long as the sentences were about the student and not the originator of the paragraph. What made this situation so heartbreaking for me was that the student could not put a sentence together properly in even an email (i.e., proper capitalization, punctuation/grammar, and use of subject-verb agreement) but stated the goal of upper division college at the beginning of the course. The student had made passing scores on the first two essay submissions thanks to content but must have been feeling desperate about the course grade to break down and paste content on two essays back to back. <br /><br />Normally, students try me with the behavior at the beginning of class under the excuse of "nobody ever told me this was cheating" or "I've always written this way and no other professor has complained." I usually reply with the following: "here's how it works in my class, you get zeros until you figure out how to write a paper without cheating, or if you don't figure out how to write original work, you will fail; how you handle yourself at this point is your choice." <br /><br />I have actually had a nearly perfect success rate in working with those students needing to learn not only course content but also better writing and citing. They are usually rewarded with the opportunity in the last few days of class to submit extra credit essays! They earn the reward of making up points lost due to needing to learn academic integrity. I've even had a couple students follow up in the subsequent semesters to tell me a heart-felt thank you for "being mean" and caring about their success enough to "stick it out" with them, because the next time they encountered a professor like me, they wrote better, cited well, and earned As--a big-time, long term reward, if you ask me.<br /><br />Back to today, I encourage you to consider what you would do to improve the learning potential for a student in a bad situation of the student's own making. If the student's test scores were not so bad, which was probably what led to the desperate acts, then I would have told the student the writing lab and SafeAssign was mandatory. For this student in the case study, I encouraged the student to drop: Something I do not do if I can avoid it, but in this student's case, why make the situation more painful on both of us! We humans avoid pain. Other than telling the student to use the writing lab in the future, knowing the student is already failing the exams and really in no hope of getting better than a low D, if that, what could I do?<br /><br />Alas, the significant learning here is that sometimes the caring professor has to learn to let go too. However, the caring professor has to let go with compassion and hope the student reflects on the past and works toward the successes waiting in the future.Dr. Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18288180130495385818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-59375524236649552052010-03-25T14:53:00.005-05:002010-03-25T15:09:00.922-05:00Helping Students Juggle Classes Just as I Help Dissertation Writes Juggle Chapters<p><span style="font-family:'Verdana';font-size:100%;">In private practice, I coach people wanting to write dissertations and earn PhDs, EdDs, DrPHs, DBAs, etc. The dissertation is a series of papers written into chapters, or <i>4, 5, or 6 pieces parts</i>, depending on the degree program and field of study. The dissertation is simply a few papers connected together by a stapler or a binding machine. The dissertation is a quilt created by the writer.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:'Verdana';font-size:100%;">Quilts are created one piece at a time. Therefore, think about the dissertation (or the set of classes taken by an undergraduate students) one piece (or class) at a time. Once a piece is finished, however small or large, the writer, student, or quilter puts that part away and begins constructing the next piece. Now, when the writer/student/quilter finds a particle of an older, completed piece prepared for this quilt that ought to belong within the next piece, then I say simply to open, select, copy, and paste away! Redundancy feeds the length of a dissertation or a semester, just as identical quilt pieces fill in the patterns of the basic quilt. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:'Verdana';font-size:100%;">As we who teach all know all too well, writing one paper is easy, and we've done that a million times. All we need to do is connect the patterns of any major topic just as an artist might craft together the pattern of a quilt. If we work on more than a specific piece's part, we know how we might feel overwhelmed. We know to avoid being overwhelmed by the big paper by focusing energy on the smaller little papers within the big project. We want to look forward one piece at a time and be able to reflect backward on the treasure trove quilt we've already pieced together so beautifully, One Piece at a Time.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:'Verdana';font-size:100%;">We desperately want our undergraduate students to begin to have the same skills they will need in life, career, and further schooling. Therefore, I work with students both inside and outside of the classroom to understand that their semester by semester experiences also compose a quilt: a quilt of learning. Each semester they face the same themes and patterns; however, each semester they face unique experiences, professors, and course specific expectations that may not be mirrored in their ongoing pattern of experiences. Helping students juggle their semesters one course at a time, priority by priority, within the weave of their lives, means acknowledging that school is like a quilt! </span></p><p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:100%;">Happy Educational "Quilting," Dr. C</span></p>Dr. Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18288180130495385818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-74746023492386277952010-02-18T08:37:00.039-06:002010-02-18T10:11:51.668-06:00Textbooks, Real Books, Lean Books, Reference Books, Poetry and More !I thought I was being efficient. I'd use the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vos5ivBeZ5c">WorldCat List Maker</a> so we can easily keep track of the books being considered as texts for the Learning Frameworks course. Then MaryAnn told me there were only a few titles on the list. A few titles don't make for a very interesting list. <br />
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So I thought about the fact that this class is supposed to be an overture to the CORE. Might this be a place where we could think out loud about some other kinds of readings?<br />
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We've talked about the possibility of including some "<a href="http://www.worldcat.org/tags/lean-books
">lean books</a>" so I added some of those to my list. Note especially the <a href="http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?go=1&itemID=155&P=products&cateID=132&subcatID=0&catalogID=224">Thinker's Guides</a> from the <a href="http://www.criticalthinking.org/">Foundation for Critical Thinking</a> (most are 50 pages or less and can be had for as little as a$1.00 when bought in large lots). And don't overlook their auxiliary web site for improving critical thinking called <a href="http://www.everyonethinks.org/">everyonethinks.org</a>. Can a web site be a text? <br />
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I also wondered out loud if we might include some "<a href="http://www.worldcat.org/tags/real-books">real books</a>." (memoirs, non-fiction, self-help, etc.) And what about a <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/tags/good-poetry">little poetry</a>?<br />
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Remember. We're in brainstorming mode. So (almost) anything goes...<br />
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Since I personally would like to see <a href="https://www.strengthsquest.com/">StrengthsQuest</a> included I decided to add a <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=E9wTAQAACAAJ&dq=strengths+finder&ei=6Ft9S7jqKqCUNfC48acJ&cd=1">little reference book</a> that would both pay the fee and provide an easy handbook for interpreting results. <br />
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There's always discussion of a <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/tags/self-produced">self-produced book</a> like the one that UNT did for similar course. While desireable, it may not be practical given the timelines we're working with right now. <br />
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And last, but certainly not least are those few lonely <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/tags/text-books">textbooks</a> whose publishers we will hear from in a few weeks. <br />
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If you'd like to look at the <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/garyduke/lists/1472706?view=&count=50&se=ts&sd=asc&qt=sort_ts_asc">entire list</a> you can do that too.<br />
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PS. You can add to the list either by emailing the title to me or by becoming a WorldCat member,creating your own list, and using a set of common tags (I suggest two word tags with a hyphen in between). For examples, look all the way to the bottom of my <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/garyduke/lists/1472706?view=&count=50&se=ts&sd=asc&qt=sort_ts_asc">main list</a>.Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-88460549239658467752010-02-13T15:49:00.010-06:002010-02-15T10:38:22.239-06:00Own Your WordsI had a bright idea. <br />
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I'd pass index cards around at the meeting and have people write their personal definitions of "significant learning experiences." But I ran into a snag. <br />
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What I really wanted to do was attach them (as comments) to the earlier post "<a href="http://significantlearningexperiences.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-is-sle-have-you-had-any-lately.html">What is an SLE?</a>" as comments. <br />
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But there was a problem. <br />
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I didn't want to allow anonymous posts or comments. <br />
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In the 90s there was a famous online virtual community called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL">The Well</a>. There were incredible conversations including some of the most brilliant people around. But The Well had one rule that is quite different from the Internet of today. You had to reveal who you were. "You own your words" was the oft stated principle.<br />
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I have a feeling that the Internet of today would be much better if such a rule existed. Unfortunately that boat has left the dock. <br />
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But not here. On the blogs that I administer the rules of The Well will be observed. <br />
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PS. Here are the index card definitions I picked up at the meeting. Some of them are quite good. <br />
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<b>A SIGNIFICANT LEARNING EXPERIENCE IS: <i></i></b><br />
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<blockquote>1. Learning that causes one to see things / the world, etc ... differently, to see new/different connections.<br />
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2. An emotional intellectual and behavioral event that is life changing. <br />
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3. When the students are engaged in a risk-free learning environment and have a sense of success.<br />
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4. When I can do something I couldn't do before -- and remember it the next day or longer. <br />
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6. When I know/see/understanding in a new way. <br />
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7. Something that can be applied outside a classroom or enhance further learning.<br />
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8. Understanding a concept or information and the ability to apply that learning to future learning/ working experiences. <br />
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9. One that can be transferred between settings and reinforced in a personally meaningful way for long term memory. <br />
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10. Something that effects my mind and behavior. Involved with someone / something that is new and important to me. <br />
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11. An experience that is based on the need to know.</blockquote>Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-66073659812294330242010-02-08T11:58:00.007-06:002010-02-10T18:40:20.913-06:00How to Learn Brain-Based Learning and More ... Using Brain Based Learning Principles: an Experiential Approach1. Assign students to do research on brain-based learning as homework. Don't give any more details than that. (At least not until you've gone through this experience at least once). This could also be adjusted depending on what your objectives are. Mine is to give them an experience which builds on their existing habits, then moves beyond it. <br />
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2. At the next class each student should bring a hardcopy article of his or her choosing on the topic at hand (brain-based learning). The article should be marked up and/or annotated in a way that would demonstrate that the student has actually read it, spent some time with it, engaged with it on some level. <br />
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3. Instructor begins by checking markups on papers of students present. Only those who have a marked up copy can participate In discussion. (If we do this early in the semester .. without warning .. I suspect the "preparation for class index" will rise). This piece can be omitted, of course) if it doesn't fit with your objectives. <br />
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4. Either with assistance or entirely on their own students should construct their own 12 commandments for brain-based learning. It's a single group-authored document that is, in one version of this, done in the classroom that has been vacated by the instructor. Students must agree on language, order of the commandments, presentafion format, how or whether to give credit to sources. (They should remember it will be due at the next class meeting. This is an intentional constraint). I envision this as perhaps the first group project of the semester. Again, in keeping with the objective of providing them with experiences where they make mistakes, then learn (mostly from themselves and each other) how to move beyond them. This could also provide an excellent learning moment for encountering the skills of cooperative learning. (See almost anything by David and Roger Johnson).<br />
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5. If you do decide to let students do the list entirely on their own...this would be a good activity for the following class. They can present it to instructor with a kind of "reading aloud" ceremony. Let them discuss the process that resulted in the 12 commandments document. Part of the assignment is their "presentation" must include as much of the rationale for their decisions on the content of the document as they can recall. Again, the instructor can highlight key cooperative learning skills, both observed and needed.<br />
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6. Watch <i>Brain Rules</i> video and show the students the book. Help them note the differences between their list and the ones in the video and the book. Can they explain any of those differences? Finally they (the students as a whole) should rank order the brain rules list in terms of what order would be best for students. There is no wrong answer here but you do want to push them to justify their choices. <br />
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7. As a summing up activity and assessment, each student will write a reflection on the whole experience in their e-portfolio. A grade will be taken. They should be told that the quality of their contribution will be evaluated primarily on the basis of the following definition of reflection:<br />
<blockquote>a. "Reflective differs from thoughtful in its stronger implication of orderly processes of thought, such as analysis and logical reasoning, in its suggestion of a definite aim, such as the understanding of a thing's nature or of its relation to other things or the reaching of a definite conclusion." From: "Thoughtful." Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms. Springfield: Merriam Webster, 1984. <b>COMMENT:</b> This may be too difficult. I'll try to find a way to make it not quite so, yet still challenging. On the other hand, it could provide a significant teaching moment, especially if you allow them drop this grade. </blockquote>8. Consider challenging the students' decision about how and whether to give credit unless,of course, it was perfect in every way. Please note: This is optional and is left to the very end because it may violate some of the principles of brain-based learning. The instructor may also want to include one of the <a href="http://Lib.utexas.edu/plagiarism">best videos ever on the consequences of plagiarism</a>.Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-10520792833723881042010-02-05T17:34:00.005-06:002010-02-08T11:17:24.212-06:00Brain-Based Learning as a Problem to Be SolvedMy task as I understood it was to create an activity that would incorporate active learning and include an educative assessment piece. This activity is not fully developed, but is suggestive. I will try to remove the rough edges in time. Let me begin with the resources I have in mind:<br />
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Resource 1: <i>John Medina. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School</i>.Seattle: Pear, 2008.<br />
<blockquote>This is a superb book recommended by one of our librarians who until joining us recently was a librarian at Microsoft where this book and the accompanying videos are, apparently, all the rage. I'm selecting it as a resource because it has the business angle, the author has impeccable credentials, and the video material is dynamite. The DVD with one 3-5 minute clip for each of the 12 "rules" comes free with purchase of the book and the free web site at <a href="http://www.brainrules.net">www.brainrules.net</a> is also quite good. </blockquote><br />
Resource 2: "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdJ7JW0LgVs">Brain based education: Fad or breakthrough?</a>" YouTube.<br />
<blockquote>Professor Daniel Willingham looks at when and how neuroscience can inform education. The professor also has very good credentials. Some may not particularly like his demeanor. But that is beside the point. "</blockquote><br />
The problem for the class to work out is "Who shall we believe? Or "Is Dr. Medina's work in the 95% group of publications that Willingham says is garbage?" <br />
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I'm tempted to stop right here and simply put these rich materials into the hands of creative teachers and let them make a significant learning experience out of this. I've got some ideas on how to proceed but I probably won't be able to post them for a while. Until then, feel free to extend this activity stem with comments...Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-73431708345597850302010-01-29T13:59:00.009-06:002010-01-29T14:13:59.568-06:00John Gardner on The First Year Experience: Irving, Texas, Jan 27,2010These are <a href="http://www.richlandcollege.edu/tr/core/gardner/gardner.html">my "very rough" notes</a> of the meeting with John Gardner. There were 12 or 13 of us. The Cool Ranch Restaurant was HUGE. The food was very good. And what John shared was most informative. <i>At least in my humble opinion</i>. GD<br />
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Anyway for what they're worth, here are the notes. Maybe they'll help jog the memories of those who were there ... and provide a small glimpse for those who were not.<br />
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I've also enjoyed reading <a href="http://www.gardnerinstitute.org/">Gardner's blog.</a> Particularly the latter part of the tagline: <br />
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<i>"He is alert to national and institutional policies that support or sabotage students’ progress through undergraduate education."</i>Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-42422379331787032142010-01-20T12:17:00.010-06:002010-01-20T16:39:58.937-06:00The Search for Practical TheorySometimes my mind busies itself during holiday with inscrutible questions. One that kept arising since late December was what those of us on the Learning Frameworks committee should put forward as OUR THEORY (for information literacy). As you know Learning Frameworks is supposed to be based on theory.<br />
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Those of us on both sides of the fence (faculty and librarian) are not particularly comfortable with such questions. We take pride in our practicality. But it's a task that must be done and the deadline is fast approaching. So what shall it be?<br />
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I don't think theory has to mean grand theory, but it should point to something other than mere practice. It's not about how to do something but rather about providing context for things done. <br />
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The one that has settled in my mind the longest has two interrelated parts:<br />
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(1) Information Cycles and (2) The Concept of Primary - Secondary - Tertiary sources. Here's a page in the <a href="http://www.webs.uidaho.edu/info_literacy/modules/module1/1_4.htm">University of Idaho Information Literacy Tutorial</a> that combines both. There are, of course, many additional resources on the web that could support this. Like this <a href="http://www.lib.washington.edu/uwill/research101/Images/primary.swf">interactive activity</a> from The University of Washington or this audio powerpoint called <a href="http://www.zumodrive.com/file/36323699?key=10OCNGFlNW">1-2-3 of Sources</a> from a librarian in Minnesota.<br />
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I know it's not very satisfying. But if you can only teach one thing (the theory - the content) what would/should it be?<br />
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PS 1. For what it's worth here's another idea I've toyed with. Science teacher Greg Craven made a 10 minute viral YouTube video a few years back that was essentially an overview of how to think about Global Warming. He called it "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ">The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See.</a>" There was a web site that followed the video and <a href="http://www.gregcraven.org/">a book</a> which I purchased ...<i>What's the Worst That Could Happen?</i> I purchased it because of Chapter 4 "A Beautiful Rainbow of Credibility: The Credibility Spectrum." It's 25 pages and could I think be translated into some kind of activity. I'll probably do another blog post that expands on this idea. <br />
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PS 2. I'm sitting here with a pile of information literacy texts trying to figure out what to do. It doesn't look promising.Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-21218716369818849612009-12-02T18:32:00.140-06:002010-02-15T11:12:46.404-06:00My Top 10 List: Integrative Learning Conference: Atlanta, October 22-24, 2009The American Association of Colleges and Universities knows its stuff. I shared breakfast (and a learning activity) with a psychology prof who's been coming to AAC&U conferences for years. He said he just noticed that everything they did was high caliber all the way. <br />
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It's true. Every session I attended was so good that one hardly knows where to start. In fact, I've been debating with myself how best to share what I received there. If you have a taste for drinking from a fire hydrant, here's the <a href="http://www.richlandcollege.edu/library/pdfs/IntegrativedLearning.pdf">program</a> (with green checkmarks for sessions I attended). And for the truly gluttonous, here are my (unedited) <a href="http://www.richlandcollege.edu/library/il-conf/">notes</a>.<br />
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With my own work group, I've been sharing a little bit each week and plan on continuing that through next semester. <br />
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With the larger CORE group, I'm not so sure. I am inviting my colleagues who attended to also write something here. We'll see what materializes. <br />
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I'd hoped that some of the presentations would be available on the <a href="http://www.aacu.org/meetings/integrative_learning/index.cfm">conference web site </a>but, alas, that has not yet happened. <span style="font-style:italic;">(I'll post a link here when these become available)</span>.<br />
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For lack of any brighter ideas and in light of the upcoming CORE convention I've decided to provide a brief sampling of things that stood out for me. <br />
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In recent years I've learned that one of the best things that comes out of conference attendance for me is new language. Thus equipped with new search words, I can then shift into research mode and find all sorts of wonderful resources. <br />
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So: In classic quick-to-read web form, here's my bullet list of highlights: buzzwords and soundbites with definitions where appropriate and (hopefully) enlightening links. <br />
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1. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Powerful Ideas</span>. Melissa Peet from The University of Michigan was the last speaker on the program. For me she was the most exciting. I spoke with her afterwards and she told me she was most motivated by powerful ideas which inspired me to include this bullet, even organize this blog post around a series of what I believe to be powerful ideas. Peet oversees the <a href="http://mportfolio.umich.edu/index.html">Generative Knowledge and ePortfolio Program</a> at The University of Michigan and talks so fast you can hardly keep up with her. It's impossible to convey the full effect of what she spoke about but maybe <a href="http://www.airweb.org/webrecordings/forum2008/216%20-%20ePortfolio.pdf">this powerpoint</a> can suggest some of the integrative depth that is possible. Some of the "new language" she gave included: three forms of knowledge (<a href="http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:gGkZJDm6Az0J:www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Perkins.html+%22generative+knowledge%22&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a">generative</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_knowledge">tacit</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_transfer">embodied</a>), the <a href="http://www.aacu.org/meetings/civic/documents/Workshop3.pdf">generative interviewing process</a> (whose purpose is to ask questions that draw out tacit strengths, capacities, potentials and possibilities), <br />
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2. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Authentic Evidence</span>. This is the AAC&U term for "assessments that focus both student and faculty attention on the <a href="http://www.aacu.org/leap/vision.cfm">essential aims and outcomes of a college education</a>. The AAC&U resists — and works to provide alternatives to the use of multiple-choice tests as the primary index of the quality of institutions’ or student’s achievement" (From their mission statement). Toward this end, much of their work centers around advancing the use of e-portfolios.<br />
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3.<span style="font-weight:bold;">VALUE Rubrics</span>. If authentic student work is to be the evidence for achievement, simple grading systems will not suffice, despite their convenience. Thus the need for rubrics. Again AAC&U has sponsored field testing of <a href="http://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/index.cfm">15 rubrics</a>: ten covering the practical and intellectual skills, four personal and social responsibility and one specifically for <a href="http://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/pdf/integrativelearning.pdf">integrative learning</a>. <br />
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4.<span style="font-weight:bold;"> E-portfolios</span>. "Last spring, Kathleen Blake Yancey suggested that e-portfolios were a leading element in a “tectonic shift” in higher education. Yancey, the Kellogg Hunt Professor of English at Florida State University and former president of the National Council of Teachers of English, spoke to hundreds of e-portfolio practitioners gathered at a landmark e-portfolio conference held at LaGuardia Community College in 2008. She argued that e-portfolios radically alter how students learn, how faculty teach, and how institutions assess the value of their educations—that e-portfolios are literally remaking the landscape of higher education"(From Elizabeth Clarks's article in the AACU journal <a href="http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-wi09/documents/PR-WI09_E-Port2.pdf">Peer Review</a>). Another rousing roundtable discussion that captures some of the electricity (and challenge) around e-portfolios can be found on <a href="http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/future-eportfolio-roundtable">The Academic Commons</a>. And for more on the "tectonic shift" see Kathleen Yancey's "<a href="http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Press/Yancey_final.pdf">Writing in the 21st Century</a>." Among other things the e-portfolio provides a platform for reflection. <br />
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5. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Reflection</span>. This is an old, old word that takes on more and more significance the closer you look. The term kept popping up at the conference. John Dewey said that knowledge and experience are different things and we learn from processing experience (reflecting on it). Sometimes referred to as a form of "meaning making", reflection is a key component in e-portfolios. But it's not just for students. <a href="http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/reflection/what.html">Reflective practice</a> is what distinguishes the professional who grows and changes based on experience that is continually being reflected upon. The Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning has produced an fine, exhaustive <a href="http://www.richlandcollege.edu/library/pdfs/reflective-practice.pdf">bibliography </a>on the subject. Or browse through a thick tome,<span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=l7tWaKaIUcQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false"> Metacognition in Learning and Instruction</a></span>, courtesy of Google Books. Half the book is devoted to student metacognition and half to teacher metacognition. Chapter 8 "Teaching Metacognitively" is mostly available with only a few pages blocked. Reflection has many purposes but I've come to believe that its most important one for our purposes is to serve as a strategy for facilitating integrative learning. <br />
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6. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Integrative Learning</span>. My favorite approach to integrative learning is from Dee Fink who, of course, provided the inspiration and the title for this blog. He was at the conference and I met him, although I wasn't able to attend his session because it was beyond standing room only. I did manage to get in on one he moderated where he distributed a <a href="http://www.richlandcollege.edu/library/pdfs/multiple-meanings">handout on the multiple meanings</a> of Integrative Learning (easy to understand and easy to use in an activity for broader understanding of the concept). I'm pretty sure that activity will be a part of the upcoming CORE conference on January 14. By the way, Fink's new book <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470554800.html">Designing Significant Learning Experiences</a></span> brings us up to date with some real world experiences of people trying to implement his ideas on their campuses. They whimsically referred to themselves as "educators who've been <span style="font-style:italic;">finked</span>." <br />
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7. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Assessing Integrative Assignments</span>. One of the very best sessions I attended was imaginatively entitled "<span style="font-style:italic;">You Get What You Ask For: Connecting Assessment of Integrative Thinking to Improvement of Assignment Design</span>." Janine Graziano-King and colleagues conducted it in classic active learning style. (This is where I worked with the psychology prof who's made a career of attending AAC&U conferences.) Using a superb <a href="http://www.richlandcollege.edu/library/pdfs/AACU-KCC-Decision-Tree">decision tree</a> that Kingsborough Center for Teaching and Learning developed especially for assessing integration between two content courses, we met in groups to assess a piece of student work from one of the learning community classes. After a bit, the facilitators showed us the prompt that had been used to introduce the assignment. It didn't take much examination at all to recognize that a good portion of the poor results from the student had been "set up" by the poor assignment prompt. Wow! Talk about a powerful learning experience. <br />
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8. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Assignment Scaffolding</span>. Speaking of assignment design, another practical strategy that impressed me was the notion of assignment scaffolding. This was one of those that came not as a featured session but as an aside that for whatever reason caught my attention. I find it mostly useful as a metaphor/criteria for developing well constructed assignments. If you're a fan of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff">George Lakoff's</a> ideas on the centrality of metaphor, you'll notice we've just jumped into a building and construction metaphor. We can speak about our foundation, about creating something solid that lasts, and much more. The metaphor is generative. You've probably already figured out what assignment scaffolding is. A learning activity begins small by giving a student place to stand, then from that new higher position, a second activity proceeds that builds on the skills acquired at level one. This can be done within a single class but the more interesting challenge for we CORE people is how to create assignment scaffolding that works across courses and through semesters. For a good example from Canada, see this one from an <a href="http://www.uow.edu.au/cedir/spotlight/scaffolding/UOW045437.html">accounting instructor</a>.<br />
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9. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Shared Pedagogies</span>.There was no special session but the term shared pedagogies came up several times over the course of the three day conference.Apparently, benefits multiply for student and teachers when the same approaches to learning are encountered in different classes. I'd say cooperative learning is a shared pedagogy in several of our colleges. <br />
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10. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Powerful Keynotes</span>. There isn't time to develop their ideas here, but take my word for it. Veronica Boix Mansilla (Pedagogy of the Contemporary) and Bruce Hutton (The Daniels Compass) are definitely worth a price of admission. <span style="font-style:italic;">I'll post their presentation materials here as soon as they become available. </span>Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-41983394696686813292009-10-13T15:11:00.037-05:002009-10-13T16:12:07.088-05:00On Deciding What to Teach and LearnI noticed that the keynote speaker on Thursday night for the upcoming <a href="http://www.aacu.org/meetings/integrative_learning/2009/schedule.cfm">AACU Conference on Integrative Learning</a> is Veronica Boix Mansilla. <br /><br />Mansilla is Lecturer, Graduate School of Education, and Principal Investigator with Project Zero, Harvard University. <br /><br />Upon seeing her name in the program and realizing she was part of <a href="http://pzweb.harvard.edu/History/History.htm">Project Zero</a> I was reminded of the respect I've held for Project Zero for many years. I've always thought it a shame that not more educators know who they are or what they do. <br /><br />Howard Gardner, who wrote <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Five-Minds-Future-Howard-Gardner/dp/1591399122">Five Minds for the Future</a> (which one of the CORE committees is reading) is also part of Project Zero. As is my hero, David Perkins, from whom you shall hear more in a moment.<br /><br />In case you are curious, the reason Project Zero has the zero in its name is it's founder believed that "... learning should be studied as a serious cognitive activity, but that "zero" had been firmly established about the field."<br /><br />Their mission, then is "to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels."<br /><br />But I digress.<br /><br />In <span style="font-weight:bold;">Smart Schools</span> which was published in 1992, Perkins included a section he called Theory One. <br /><br />As we embark on the task of deciding what this much ballyhooed Learning Framework/s? course ought to be, I thought it might be helpful to review what he said.<br /><br />So here it is straight from page 45: Theory One. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">A rather good theory of teaching and learning can be stated in a single sentence.The theory is not terribly sophisticated. It does not require elaborate laboratory research to test and justify. But pursuing its implications can take us a long way toward a much improved vision of classroom practice. So simple is this theory, so much a rough-hewn, first-order approximation to the conditions that foster learning, that we will call it Theory One, saving higher numbers for fancier theories.<br /><br />Theory One says this: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">People learn much of what they have a reasonable opportunity and motivation to learn. </span><br /><br />How could so outrageously bland a statement about teaching possibly imply anything about better classroom practice? Admittedly, Theory One seems entirely too mousy for the job. But this is the Mouse That Roared. To see its power, we need to elaborate somewhat on the implications of the one-sentence version of Theory One. What is "reasonable opportunity and motivation to learn."? Without resorting to any technical knowledge about learning, one might commonsensically put down the following conditions: <br /><br />--Clear information. Descriptions and examples of the goals, knowledge needed, and the performances expected. <br /><br />-- Thoughtful practice. Opportunity for learners to engage actively and reflectively whatever is to be learned -- adding numbers, solving word problems, writing essays.<br /><br />-- Informative feedback. Clear, thorough counsel to learners about their performance, helping them to proceed more effectively. <br /><br />-- Strong intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Activities that are amply rewarded, either because they are very interesting and engaging in themselves or because they feed into other achievements that concern the learner. <br /><br />So there it is, Theory One, a commonsense conception of a good teaching practice. Theory One aims simply to establish a baseline. For any performance we want to teach, if we supply clear information about the performance by way of examples and descriptions, offer learners time to practice the performance and think about how they are handling it, provide informative feedback, and work from a platform of strong intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, we are likely to have considerably success with the teaching. <br /></span><br /><br />Perkins, David. <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=fEW0E9VaKQIC&vq=distributed+cognition&dq=%22smart+schools%22+checklist+for+change+perkins&source=gbs_navlinks_s">Smart Schools: From Training Memories to Educating Minds</a></span>. New York: Free Press-Macmillan, 1992.Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-23352985714235521082009-08-05T19:58:00.017-05:002009-08-05T20:52:49.615-05:00Their Characteristics, Our PerceptionsStep 1 in Fink's course design process calls for us to "<span style="font-weight:bold;">Identify Important Situational Factors</span>." Question no. 4 on the worksheet asks for us to characterize the learners. <br /><br />In trying to think about this, I remembered the campus wide e-mail I had sent in June 2009 just as the Learning Frameworks Committee was getting started. I read through all the responses, of course, when I first received them, but I wanted to present them in a way that might reveal the larger picture and maybe facilitate some sort of analysis. <br /><br />So I re-sent them to this address: <a href="http://dcccdstudents.blogspot.com">http://dcccdstudents.blogspot.com</a>. <br /><br />I lightly edited the results and applied labels as best I could. The right hand column shows those labels sorted so that the issues mentioned most often are at the top of the list. Of course, this is not a scientific survey (as they say) but I thought the responses did provide a rich overview of our students (and, incidentally, of our perceptions. <br /><br />What do you see? (Don't forget you can look up a particular word with the search box in the upper left corner of the screen.)<br /><br />I don't think there are many surprises here but perhaps seeing all the perceptions organized this way will help us think through the material better and also to give proper attention to the most imposing factors. <br /><br />Here's the text of my original e-mail...<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The Question: NEW TO RICHLAND STUDENT - What does she look like?<br /><br />The answer is not blonde and 5 ' 2". Well, I guess it sometimes is, but that's not the point of the question.<br /><br />I'm on the district committee that is charged with developing a new required course for students who enter college with less than 12 credits. This was one of the recommendations of the DCCCD Core Curriculum Group headed by Becki<br />Williams last year. It's currently called the LEARNING FRAMEWORKS course and is scheduled to begin in Fall 2010..<br /><br />Our first assignment is to come to the next meeting and tell the committee what the "new to college student" looks like at Richland.<br /><br />Since that covers a lot of territory I thought I'd get some help. From YOU. If you're game.<br /><br />The idea, of course, is to build a profile so we'll KNOW who we're going to be teaching. So we can tailor the course to their real needs.<br /><br />Feel free to contribute just a little piece or an extended dissertation. Thanks in advance :)<br /> <br /> Gary Duke, 6/4/2009<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br />Other opinions can be added by sending an e-mail to: garyduke.dcccdstudents@blogger.com. The subject line will become the heading for the blog post.Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-74585643935396530122009-08-03T12:38:00.050-05:002010-02-15T10:39:22.180-06:00Opportunities for Learning and ChangeIn July I visited a friend in Boston who is in her last year at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Being both the nosy type and a book lover, I did my usual routine -- I browsed her book shelf. My eyes fell upon a thin green book,<span style="font-style:italic;"> The New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives</span> by Robert Marzano and John Kendall (2nd ed). <br />
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Of course, this isn't exactly bed side reading material -- but it immediately caught my interest because of my involvement with the Learning Frameworks Committee. <br />
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My friend explained that this was her professor's choice as the best update of Bloom's work. The original publication came out in 1956 and I knew that there have been many attempts to correct and revise Bloom. But given the prestige of this recommendation, I decided to spend some time with Marzano and Kendall. <br />
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To make a long story short, I was incredibly impressed. <br />
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And I instantly saw an application for Frameworks since I knew that Bloom was one of the theories included in the <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mnade.org%2FPower%2520points%2FMNADEInstituteFixed%255B1%255D.ppt&ei=rD13St_HEtP7tge1uNGWCQ&usg=AFQjCNHYAbUm6id3HcvWDbLrC6vzY1Y8_A&sig2=T5AVUzkCwi3BlTrN5AydmQ">Russ Hodges material</a>. <br />
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I make no claim to have absorbed the whole book. But just reading the first chapter (which is conveniently <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=kg108NbATFMC&dq=marzano+new+taxonomy+of+educational+objectives&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s
">available in Google Books</a>) was enough for me. Actually pages 10-12 were enough. The authors call it the Model of Behavior that undergirds the New Taxonomy.<br />
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dh_DUaVYLtE/Snd6l1yUexI/AAAAAAAAAME/waZWVwvV1Ho/s1600-h/marzano3-1.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 283px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dh_DUaVYLtE/Snd6l1yUexI/AAAAAAAAAME/waZWVwvV1Ho/s320/marzano3-1.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365892271547120402" /></a><br />
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I can't say for sure why it resonated so perfectly for me. It's probably because of the way that it brings motivation and metacognition into the forefront. Learning and change begin with the self-system and a decision whether or not to engage. The strength of that engagement determines the extent to which a metacognitive system is employeed, and finally the cognitive system does its work. Each of the three "mental systems" works on and with the individual's store of knowledge.<br />
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I'm an intuitive so perhaps I'm making too much of a leap here. But what I saw in this was a compelling way to organize the material in the Learning Frameworks course. Begin with the self-system, then move through the other components. There's a logic to this if Marzano is correct when he says these are steps and represent "how information is processed once a decision to engage has been made. (11)<br />
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Here's what he says about the primacy of self-system thinking. <br />
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"The self-system consists of an interrelated arrangement of attitudes, beliefs, and emotions. It is the interaction of thee attitudes, beliefs, and emotions that determines both motivation and attention. The self-system determines whether an individual will engage in or disengage in a given task; it also determines how much energy the individual will bring to the task. Once the self-system has determined what will be be attended to, the functioning of all other elements of thought (i.e., the metacognitive system, the cognitive system, and the knowledge domains) are, to a certain extent, dedicated or determined. This is why the act of the self-system's selecting a task has been referred to as 'crossing the Rubicon.' " (55)<br />
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Once the Rubicon is crossed, the next system falls naturally into place. The metacognitive system is the system of goals, strategy, and self monitoring that provides the structure which enables the cognitive functions (retrieval, comprehension, analysis, and utilization) to succeed.<br />
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Knowledge is a whole other thing probably deserving it's own separate blog post. And that's convenient because I've run out of writing steam and I expect you're probably nearing your supply of reading steam as well. :)Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-84637808278329981312009-07-21T13:23:00.032-05:002009-07-21T17:09:50.693-05:00Why I Think The Fink Road Map is the Way to GoI've made no secret of the fact that I believe the course design approach championed by Dee Fink is the one we ought to use as we design the Learning Frameworks course. <br /><br />There aren't many times in life when you have an chance to spend a whole year with colleagues creating something that can potentially help many, many students for years to come. If we get it right, it'll be hugely important in the history of this district. If we give it less than our very best effort, it seems to me, we miss a real opportunity. <br /><br />Sadly, I could write way too many pages describing why I believe this. I won't. <br /><br />Here are my reasons -- in a nutshell.<br /><br />1. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Because it's theory based.</span> <br><br> The 150 item bibliography in his book<span style="font-style:italic;"> <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=yycqudpQkQwC&dq=creating+significant+learning+experiences&source=gbs_navlinks_s">Creating Significant Learning Experiences</a> </span> and his frequent references to the literature of the scholarship of teaching and learning bear witness to the fact that he has done his homework. And 25 years working with the faculty at The University of Oklahoma and in consultancies across the country means this is not just ivory tower stuff. <br /><br />Here's a simple example of how the theory based part helps. At our next committee meeting we'll be discussing the gathering of information from stakeholders -- students, instructors, community members, etc. Because we can connect that to what Fink calls identifying situational factors, we know the real reason we're doing it. He makes that clear: We need to know which factors are important for us and which we can safely set aside. If the identified important factors aren't accounted for well, we could end up with a course that doesn't work. <br /><br />2. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Because it actually is a course design method. </span> <br><br>That may sound silly, but when one reads Fink's description of the method that most instructors use in developing a new course (<span style="font-style:italic;">Creating</span>, p. 61) it becomes pretty obvious that something more systematic might be in order. Rather than doing the natural thing -- which is to start listing major topics to be covered, <span style="font-style:italic;">integral course design</span> begins by asking more fundamental questions and building strong course components that will function together as a real system. His 12 step program and the order in which these are done insure that we'll not overlook anything important and that our concern with content won't overshadow other important aspects. <br /><br />3. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Because it makes explicit the pathway we're taking.</span> <br><br> By demystifying the processes we're using to create the course, we make it possible for others to improve on what we've done. And if we've made any missteps others can more easily come along and do "course correction" because they'll know not only what we've done but why we've done it. And those who will ultimately teach the course will be able to understand much more deeply the decisions we make which will, in turn, free them to adapt (as all teachers will) in a way that does not depart from the spirit of what we're all trying to accomplish. <br /><br />I could also say ...<br /><br />... that that the whole thing just rings true to me and that it holds out the possibility of our creating something truly great! But I won't say that. Instead, I'll just shut up (finally). <br /><br />Have a nice day. :)Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-46163410006612877422009-07-14T09:16:00.025-05:002010-02-15T10:42:33.136-06:00What is an SLE ?The road map provided by Dee Fink's approach to creating new courses is premised on two powerful ideas : 1) Integrated Course Design and 2) Significant Learning Experiences (SLE's).<br />
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The first idea -- Integrated Course Design-- means you design all the key ingredients (goals, activities, and assessment) from the very beginning so that everything functions as a balanced system. <span style="font-style: italic;">This is rarely done.</span> It's nearly always the case that content (what is to be taught and learned) takes precedence over everything else.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The second idea -- Significant learning experiences -- means ... Well, what exactly does it mean? </span><br />
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Setting aside Fink's technical definition for the moment, what does it mean to you? And what in your experience illustrates it?<br />
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If we were sitting together and wanted to enrich our understanding of significant learning experiences, I'd recommend we do one of two things (or maybe both).<br />
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First. A sentence completion using the following stem: "A significant learning experience is ... " <br />
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Or you might like this one better: "You know its a significant learning experience when..."<br />
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If we were then to share those personal definitions, we'd find that each one of them would add some small dimension to our shared perception of the concept.<br />
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Second. If some of us were willing to share a particular memory of a significant learning experience, that too would enrich our understanding and become part of our shared, constructed meaning. And if we'd put on our "analytical hats" just for a few moments and share specifically what made those experiences significant, we'd move forward a tiny bit more. The more we did this kind of thing the deeper our understanding of significant learning experiences would become. <br />
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Ummmmmm. It occurs to me that we COULD do this ... using this blog.<br />
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If you're willing to share, send your definitions and stories to <a href="mailto:garyduke.siglearningx@blogger.com">garyduke.siglearningx@blogger.com</a>. The e-mail will be immediately posted to our blog <a href="http://significantlearningexperiences.blogspot.com/">DCCCD Significant Learning Experiences</a>. The subject line will be the post title and the text of your e-mail will be the text of the blog. This is the quick and easy way to do it. <br />
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If you want to contribute to this blog, contact Gary Duke and let him know you'd like to be an "authorized blogger." He'll send you an invitation. <br />
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PS. If you're not sure of any of this, but you'd like to comment on something here, all you have to do is click on the Comment link. The comment will appear without your name unless you type it as part of the comment. If you're logged into your Google account, your name will appear automatically. <br />
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Come on. Join in the fun. :)Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5443237366463917140.post-27269934394672235472009-06-24T18:50:00.004-05:002010-02-15T10:41:43.444-06:00Creating Significant Learning ExperiencesIn the summer of 2003 I was lucky enough to attend <a href="http://www.teachingforachange.com/">Teaching for a Change</a>, a week long conference for community college folks focused entirely on the improvement of teaching. That year it was in Park City, Utah, a not too shabby location for a professional conference.<br />
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Though the conference is small -- Richland is one of the sponsors-- it is incredibly rich. I met people there from all over the world who had uncovered it in a web search and decided to take a shot. I talked to many of them and they were never disappointed. Lots of folks said it was the best conference they'd ever attended.<br />
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It was there that I was introduced to the work of <a href="http://www.finkconsulting.info/publications.html">Dee Fink</a>.<br />
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It wasn't like there was a whole program on him. He was really only mentioned in the context of a class that Al Schroeder and I attended about "Constructing Good Tests." It sounded like a real snoozer. We only went because there was absolutely nothing being offered that hour. It turned out to be incredibly enlightening. I eventually realized it was because it was built on the principles of something called "integrated course design" which is the brain child of Dee Fink and his associates at The University of Oklahoma.<br />
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Fink started as a geographer but soon realized he loved helping other instructors improve their teaching. He founded the Instructional Development Program at OU in 1979. Most of his work these days is traveling the country<a href="http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/index.html"> giving workshops</a> on how to create new college courses using the principles of integrated course design.<br />
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It wasn't too long after the conference that I got notice of the publication of his seminal work, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Significant-Learning-Experiences-Integrated/dp/0787960551/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245892481&sr=8-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Creating Significant Learning Experiences</span></a> (Jossey-Bass, 2003). As always, the book provides the most in-depth, sophisticated presentation of the ideas. But there are other ways to get the basics including a <a href="http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/1/3/8/p101384_index.html">powerpoint</a> and a <a href="http://www.ou.edu/pii/tips/design.htm">web site</a>. A think that probably a close, careful reading of the 34 page <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CAcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftrc.virginia.edu%2FWorkshops%2F2004%2FFink_Designing_Courses_2004.pdf&ei=ngpnS8jBK5TYNsTy4PUG&usg=AFQjCNGZnJzLyzNa6q9tP9Kdjkf4pN409A&sig2=pelzEDrIH0GF8iaxEWER6Q">A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning</a> is the very best way, short of reading the whole book (which I plan to do this summer). Anyone else up for the challenge ?<br />
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I consider myself privileged to serve on the Core Curriculum Committee charged with the design of the new Learning Frameworks class to begin in 2010. I think <span style="font-style: italic;">The Self-Directed Guide </span>provides the best road map I've seen for creating a class that can be "truly significant" in the DCCCD.Gary Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01423797415919767567noreply@blogger.com1