Integrative Designs for
General Education and Assessment
Program Highlights
Thursday, February 21, 2008, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Keynote Address
Designing Assessments that Deepen Learning: At the Intersections of General Education and Assessment
In a society as diverse as the United States, there can be no “one-size-fits-all” design for learning. Yet all educational institutions and fields of study share a common obligation to prepare their graduates as fully as possible for the real-world demands of work and citizenship in a complex and fast-changing society. In this context, there is great value in a broadly defined educational framework that provides a shared sense of purpose and a strong emphasis on effective practices that help students achieve these aims. How can leaders in general education departments, disciplines, and student affairs work together to advance the aims and outcomes of liberal education? Dr. Schneider will present a set of principles designed to raise the standards for student achievement while avoiding the disadvantages of standardization. Dr. Maki will discuss strategies for assessing student achievement of these aims and outcomes and using assessment to enhance students’ cumulative progress in integrating general education perspectives throughout their studies.
Carol Geary Schneider, President of AAC&U since 1998, developed both Liberal Education and America’s Promise and Greater Expectations: The Commitment to Quality as a Nation Goes to College, major efforts to rethink the aims and outcomes of a twenty-first century college education so that liberal learning becomes a framework for the entire educational experience, whatever a student’s choice of major. Under Dr. Schneider's leadership, AAC&U has also expanded its work on diversity, launched several new projects on civic engagement and the disciplines, and deepened its capacity to support campuses working on educational change.
Peggy Maki is a higher education consultant who specializes in helping institutions and disciplinary organizations to integrate assessment of student learning into educational practices. Her prior work includes Director of Assessment at the American Association for Higher Education; Associate Director of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, New England Association of Schools and Colleges; and Vice President, Dean of Faculty, and Professor of English, Bradford College.
Friday, February 22, 2008, 8:00– 9:15 a.m.
Plenary
Charting the Successful Transfer: Coherence and Degree Completion in a Time of Swirling Enrollments
Today, more than sixty percent of bachelor's degree recipients will attend two or more institutions over the course of their educational careers. What challenges do these "swirling" enrollments pose to educators and administrators striving to foster student achievement of essential learning outcomes? What is the impact of a system- or state-wide approach to general education? What is the role of research and assessment in providing feedback about student progress as they move from one institution to another? This plenary will address these issues from the perspective os a two-year and a four-year institution. Community colleges, and four-year institutions that receive large numbers of community college graduates, have long worked with such swirling enrollments and can serve as resources to the broader higher education community as it tackles issues of transfer, degree completion, and student success.
Helen Giles-Gee assumed the presidency of Keene State College in July 2005. She has over three decades of experience as a professor and administrator at public higher education institutions, most recently serving as provost of Rowan University where she was responsible for the academic affairs division and the Graduate School.
Stephen Mittelstet, President of Richland College since 1979, has served on the humanities faculty since the college opened in 1972. He was recognized by the Texas Legislature for his “25 years of outstanding service … and for his contributions to the educational vitality of North Texas.” He also received the Educational Testing Service’s O’Banion Prize for “inspiring significant change to teaching and learning.”
Friday, February 22, 2008, 11:00 a.m.– 12:00 p.m.
Plenary
Achieving Faculty Engagement at the Crossroads
Maintaining a strong general education program requires an approach that is faculty driven and multi-faceted. Such an approach can create innovation, creative teaching and courses that are fresh, vibrant, and relevant for both the student and the instructor. This plenary will present a variety of methods for supporting and advancing faculty engagement with general education designs that inspire student goal setting, curiosity, and critical thinking. Participants will learn about a variety of campus initiatives instituted at the University of North Carolina Charlotte such as Crossroads Charlotte, Summer Institutes, course pairings, Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge grants, and curriculum and instruction grants that have led students to examine the forces behind social change and develop team-based service-learning projects tied to their academic interests. The presentation will engage interactive multi-media and audience participation.
Joan Lorden provides leadership for seven colleges, research institutes, and a university-wide graduate school. Prior to joining UNC Charlotte, she served as Associate Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dean in Residence in the Division of Graduate Education at the National Science Foundation, and on peer review panels and advisory boards at the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Department of Defense. Throughout her career, Dr. Lorden has been promoting the success of women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering. She is currently the principal investigator for an NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation award.
Charlynn Ross is a former faculty member in Communication Studies and was selected as Director for the University Center for Academic Excellence in 1997. As a frequent presenter at national conferences focusing on student retention and graduation, she stays abreast of research that enhances student learning and achievement. She consults in the areas of student success, conflict management, classroom management, small group communication and leadership. Ross is a member of the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Leadership Team, assisting women faculty at UNC Charlotte to excel in STEM disciplines.
Friday, February 22, 2008, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Luncheon Panel Discussion
(Separate registration and $50 fee required; includes lunch)
Accreditation, General Education, and Assessment: Working Together to Advance Educational Excellence
How have changes in the ways campuses approach assessment and general education relative to accreditation helped to advance educational excellence? This panel will examine the ways that accreditors are working with faculty members and administrators to translate accreditation requirements for learning assessment into a tool for educational improvement and how national events might affect accreditation, campus practices and student learning.
Pat O'Brien, Deputy Director, Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, New England Association of Schools and Colleges; and Jean Avnet Morse, President, Middle States Commission on Higher Education
Moderator: Terrel Rhodes, Vice President, Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment, AAC&U
Friday, February 22, 2008, 1:45 – 3:15 p.m.
Feature Session
Cultivating Liberal Education Outcomes: Perspectives of Disciplinary Societies
Helping students obtain a liberal education is the responsibility of all faculty, regardless of discipline. What are the best ideas for faculty development, introductory courses, and capstone courses where students integrate learning in both general education and their majors? How can "discipline-based departments" contribute to the goals and outcomes of a liberal arts education? This panel will address how disciplinary knowledge and habits of the mind can be infused in various courses and experiences and how departments can assess general education knowledge for majors and non-majors and use that data to improve student learning. The panel will explore how disciplinary societies encourage “best practices" in general education and in the assessment. Panelists will identify resources and support available through the disciplinary societies and beyond.
Robin Hailstorks, Director of Pre-college and Undergraduate Programs, American Psychological Association; Carla Howery, Director, Academic and Professional Affairs, American Sociological Association; Maura Mast, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Massachusetts-Boston
Moderator: Jerry Gaff, Senior Scholar, AAC&U
Saturday, February 23, 2008, 11:00 a.m. – Noon
Plenary
Assessment and General Education: Resisting Reductionism without Resisting Responsibility
Those of us committed to general education believe that we are capable of stimulating imagination, critical thinking and other hard to define qualities in undergraduate students. While we are quite comfortable with assessing student learning outcomes in courses and other structured exercises (though we need to improve our capacities) we have not devoted as much attention to assessing the larger general education experience. The recent emergence of political demands for institutional educational accountability might be welcomed if it encouraged us to develop new, more sensitive modes of assessing broad general education learning outcomes on the basis of which we can enhance general education and strengthen outcomes. But there will continue to be pressure to measure less significant, but more apparently tangible results. This plenary will address one of the most important challenges to educators – how to respond creatively to theses demands for accountability without compromising our larger liberal education objectives.
Stanley Katz, Lecturer with the rank of Professor in the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University, is President Emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies. His recent research focuses upon the relationship of civil society and constitutionalism to democracy, and upon the relationship of the United States to the international human rights regime. He is a commentator on higher education policy and a scholar of American legal and constitutional history, philanthropy, and non-profit institutions.
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