Call for Proposals

GENERAL EDUCATION AND ASSESSMENT:
Creating Shared Responsibility for Learning Across the Curriculum

February 17-19, 2005
Grand Hyatt Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: JULY 1, 2004

AAC&U invites faculty, academic administrators, student affairs professionals, graduate students, accreditors, and others to submit proposals that respond to broad, compelling questions about the state of general education today. For more information on the conference themes, visit "About the Meeting."

If you intend to submit a proposal please read the information below. We look forward to your proposal and participation.

On-line Proposal Form
Conference Question Pathways
How to Submit a Proposal
Suggestions for Submitting a Proposal
Select a Session Format
Resources for Attendees to your Session
Final Reminders
Dates to Remember
If You Have Questions

Conference Question Pathways

Below are five broad questions to help frame your proposal and conference discussion. Proposal abstract descriptions (1 page) should indicate the Pathway to which you are referring and articulate the issues that revolve around a particular question, providing data, theories, and pros and cons to alternative approaches. Briefly frame the issues involved (1-2 paragraphs) and provide examples of how you will facilitate discussion/analysis/reflection to engage the diverse expertise and experiences of the participants and help them arrive at the answers that work for them.

1. Aims of General Education: What is it students ought to know and be able to do as a result of an undergraduate education? What is the role of general education in helping students develop those habits of mind, heart, and practice?

• What competencies and knowledge would students identify as critical? What do they value?
• How has increasing diversity and globalization influenced goals for undergraduate learning?
• How do we address such core goals as scientific literacy, quantitative reasoning, and information technologies?
• How can faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals raise student awareness of and commitment to knowledge and competencies they will need for work, home, community, and life-long learning upon graduation?
• How are the ways of knowing generated in general education and in the majors different? How are they related?
• In what ways do gender, race, class, culture, sexual orientation, and disability shape the learning environment?
• How is learning in general education, the majors, and student affairs aligned on your campus to foster inclusion and high achievement?
• What are the key outcomes around which curricula, courses, and pedagogies (inside and out of the classroom) might be seamlessly structured to bring coherence and intentionality to the whole student learning experience?

2. Assessment of Student Gains in Learning: What is the role of assessment in helping us know if students are achieving key educational outcomes and habits of life-long learning?

• What do assessments tell us about student learning in general education?
• What should campuses learn as a result of assessment?
• What valid assessment tools work? Why? How?
• How might institutions embed assessment throughout the curriculum to deepen learning and assure achievement of key outcomes as well as the distinctive educational goals toward which each student aspires?
• How is assessment data being used to improve student learning?
• How can assessment become embedded as an educational value?
• How can we move from student self-reports to direct assessment of student learning?
• How are institutions using assessment to revise general education that reflects the ever changing diversity of their campus population?

3. Signature Programs: What is distinctive about the general education program being discussed? How can that distinctiveness be demonstrated through assessment of native and transfer students upon graduation?

• Do transfers affect student learning and attainment of educational goals and, if so, in what ways?
• What assessment tools are available for measuring the effectiveness of the distinctive general education program?
• How do we build and sustain faculty, staff, and student investment in signature programs?

4. Engagement and Leadership: Who is Teaching General Education?

• From whom are students learning in general education?
• What is the role of adjuncts in teaching general education? The role of graduate students? The role of senior faculty?
• What is the relationship between teaching in general education and teaching in the major?
• How can communication and collaboration be fostered among those teaching in general education courses, the majors, and student affairs to assure mutually reinforcing educational experiences across the curriculum?
• How can institutions foster an environment in which all faculty value and take ownership of the general education curriculum?
• How can institutions ensure that adjunct faculty have a meaningful orientation, voice, and place in the campus culture?
• How can we help future faculty understand the role of, and effectively teach, general education courses?
• How do faculty, administrators, and student affairs personnel create learning environments that are supportive of individual perspective and educational goals?

5. Shared Ownership and Responsibility: How is general education perceived and valued by external and internal stakeholders? How is it communicated? What are the effects?

• Who are the advocates – on campus and off – for general education?
• Who might be involved in general education review and revision to ensure effectiveness?
• How can faculty be involved in establishing clear expectations and shared learning goals with colleagues?
• How can institutions shape general education beyond courses a la carte to a coherent learning experience for students?
• How might all stakeholders become involved in developing curricula that facilitate student transfers from one type of institution to another and ensure their success?
• How can the process of adopting new curricula improving general education be sustained? How can institutions foster a cycle of renewal?
• What structures aid in ensuring that curriculum remains educationally powerful?

If you have any questions or would like to discuss your proposal ideas, please contact Karen Kalla at kalla@aacu.org or call 202.387.3760 ext. 417.

How to Submit a Proposal

Electronic Submission
Please submit your proposal online by filling in each field of the submission form as directed. If you cannot submit the proposal electronically or encounter technical difficulties, please print out the form and fax it to AAC&U at 202.265.9532. For additional assistance, please contact Siah Annand at Annand@aacu.org or 202.387.3760 ext. 802.

Deadline
Please submit your proposal on or before Thursday, July 1, 2004.

Notification
You should receive an automatic message indicating receipt of your proposal when submitted. If you do not receive this message, please send an email to Siah Annand at Annand@aacu.org.

Acceptance
Your will be notified in early August of the status of your proposal.

Registration Fees
All session leaders and facilitators at the conference are responsible for the appropriate conference registration fees, travel, and hotel expenses. Please be sure all individuals indicated in your proposal have this information. Registration materials will be available online by mid-November 2004.

Suggestions for Submitting a Proposal

This conference has been specifically conceptualized to provide a forum for session leaders and participants to collectively examine provocative questions about general education and assessment and engage in discussion and reflection to foster improvements in educational practice upon return to campus. It is also designed to showcase new research that helps inform discussion around these questions.

We strongly encourage you to provide handouts and Web addresses as appropriate to support your session. Written or electronic resources may provide the essential link that enables conference participants to pursue your ideas or develop a program based on your work once they return to campus. Particularly requested are practical “How To” guides and Web site links that include syllabi, curricular or co-curricular programs, research findings, or institutional policies/practices.

AAC&U is committed to presenting Network conferences at which session content and facilitators reflect the pluralism of our campus communities. Proposals that advance diversity as a catalyst to deepen student learning are especially appreciated. We also encourage the inclusion of student perspectives.

Select a Session Format

Please indicate the type of session you feel will be most effective for addressing your question. Session formats may vary in length from 60 to 90 minutes. We will make every effort to accommodate your preferred session format. Session rooms will be set in roundtables to facilitate interaction whenever possible.

Seminar (60 to 90 Minutes; One to Three Facilitators)
Seminars should begin with the framing of an urgent question and include a brief overview of the issues raised by the question. The seminar leaders might provide data, theories, pros and cons to a variety of approaches and then facilitate discussion among the participants. Please balance the session time spent on framing the issue with time for participant interaction and engagement with the question. We ask that you provide examples of how you will facilitate discussion/analysis/reflection to engage the diverse expertise and experiences of the participants to help them arrive at the answers that might work for them. The seminar leader should provide written information including charts and diagrams as applicable to the question being addressed.

Poster/Demonstration Sessions (One to Two Facilitators)
These sessions will take place during a reception and/or continental breakfast with ample time to engage participants in your work. Posters might display diagrams of new approaches to integrating general education with majors, assessment tools, curricula/co-curricula plans, and developing habits of mind, heart, and practice. Handouts with key points of the display information provide valuable reference materials to guide change and innovation when participants return to their home campuses. We are especially interested in posters that describe campus programs in both qualitative and quantitative terms.

Poster/Demonstration sessions lend themselves well to combining visual displays of key information with written and verbal presentations and small group interaction to create a more personal learning experience. These sessions might include 3’x 4’ boards displaying visual charts, diagrams, pictures, graphs, etc. that demonstrate campus programs, processes, models, institutional structures, etc. They might also choose to present the information through other technological means, or other visual display that can be set-up on the 6’ x 3’ table provided. (Please note: Our ability to provide technical assistance is limited, but if you have a project for which you need such assistance, we are happy to explore the options with you.)

Roundtable Discussion
Roundtable sessions are a vital component of AAC&U’s Network for Academic Renewal conferences. Sessions are facilitated discussions of no more than 10 people, including facilitator(s), that provide an opportunity for conference participants to explore shared interests and reflect upon important topics in an informal environment. They provide a valuable forum to share expertise, experience, and create new ideas for action.

The facilitator prefaces the discussion with a brief overview of her/his work and a handout that includes a longer description, theory, data, models, bibliography, or other resources. She/he may pose a question to stimulate and/or focus the conversation. The remaining time should be devoted to dialogue. Participants enjoy this opportunity to reflect on issues of central relevance to their work among colleagues from diverse positions and institutions and to derive whole new ways of thinking about shared goals and concerns. Handouts are very much appreciated by conference attendees (plan to bring 10-15 copies).

Resources for Attendees of Your Session

Conference participants like to have resource materials to help them implement or share new ideas when they return to campus. Please plan to bring 75 handouts for your session. We strongly encourage presenters to provide resources in advance of the meeting online; this increases the potential for active participation in your session.

Online Resources for your Session
If your proposal pertains to a project, program, course, or other feature for which there is (or will be) descriptive materials on the Web, please provide the URL address with your proposal. AAC&U’s Web site will include these links when we post the program to our Web site in November 2004.

Advance Readings
We encourage you to make available advance readings that participants will find useful for your session. We ask that you post such readings on a Web site by November if possible, and we will ask you for these URLs at that time.

Final Reminders

• Please complete all fields, including information pertaining to all additional speakers.
• Please include links to supplemental materials, if available.
• Please remember that by submitting a proposal, you agree to:
• Register and pay conference fees, if the proposal is accepted
• Inform your co-facilitators about the proposal’s status and the need for all facilitators to pay the conference registration fees.

Dates to Remember

• July 1, 2004
  Proposals due to AAC&U
• August 1, 2004
  Proposal acceptance notification
• November 1, 2004
  Conference registration materials available online
• January 12, 2005
  Cut-off date for conference reduced guest room rate at the conference hotel: Grand Hyatt Buckhead in Atlanta
• February 3, 2005
  Deadline for Early Bird conference registration rate. Beginning February 4, 2005, add $50 to your registration fee.

If you have questions or need additional information please contact Siah Annand at Annand@aacu.org or call 202.387.3760 ext. 802. We look forward to receiving your proposal.