2011 Engaging Departments Institute
July 13-17, 2011
The Hotel at Turf Valley
Ellicott City, Maryland
Institute Curriculum
An opening plenary, on Wednesday evening, will set the context for the Institute with a discussion of essential learning outcomes, being intentional about learning, the purposes of assessment, and the relationship of study in departments to general and liberal education (e.g., effective educational practices, research on engagement and ethical thinking, and learning for life in a global community).
Institute concurrent sessions will follow four “tracks” (teams members are encouraged to divide up among the tracks according to interests and needs):
Track 1: Educational Leadership
This track will focus on how departments can connect disciplinary goals with institution-wide learning outcomes; how institutions can support and reward faculty (including contingent faculty) for focusing on student learning within and beyond the department; how work in the major can advance students’ personal and social responsibility and engagement with global issues; and how senior leaders can support faculty curricular leadership to build campus and student engagement with liberal learning outcomes.
Track 2: The Departmental Outcomes and Aims of Twenty-first Century Liberal Education
This track will explore the aims and outcomes of a contemporary liberal education and the particular role departments and majors can play in helping students to achieve these outcomes at their highest levels. Special attention will be paid to strategies for advancing knowledge, intellectual skills, and personal and social responsibility through the disciplines as well as integrating learning developed through general education and co-curricular experiences into students’ most advanced work.
Track 3: Faculty Roles
This track will focus on how faculty can more effectively and intentionally strengthen students’ achievement of ambitious learning outcomes. Sessions will address the roles faculty play in shaping departmental cultures for teaching and learning; advancing student intellectual development; and engaging students in “high-impact” educational practices.
Track 4: The Learning, Assessment, and Improvement Cycle
While many issues of departmental effectiveness in teaching and learning naturally fall into both the leadership and faculty work tracks, this part of the Institute curriculum will focus on the connections between assessment and the improvement of learning. Sessions will emphasize the need for campuses to learn more about assessing the quality of student work in ways that benefit students, faculty, departments, and programs in everyday practice and planning.
Daily synthesis sessions will provide a chance for attendees as a group to integrate the ideas, issues, and challenges emerging in the tracks.
A closing plenary, on Saturday evening, will allow campus teams to explore next steps in engaging colleagues with their proposed plans of action and to reflect on critical issues related to educational change.
From Planning to Campus Action
During the Institute each campus team will develop an action plan that outlines the team’s goals, activities, and timeline for their following the Institute. We have found that having teams prepare brief action plans significantly helps them to make progress in addressing the issues that initially prompted them to attend the Institute. Teams will make brief oral presentations of their action plan to other campus teams and to expert faculty.
Questions may be directed to Kathryn Angeles at angeles@aacu.org or 202-884-7413.
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