Pedagogies of Engagement: New Designs for Learning In and Across the Disciplines

The Network for Academic Renewal Conference
April 15-17, 2004
InterContinental Chicago Hotel
Chicago, Illinois

Conference Program

Resources from Meeting

Please note that many of the links on this page lead to pdf and powerpoint presentations, which can take a long time to load, depending on your computer and internet connection.

Using Academic Service-Learning to Foster Emotional Intelligence
Susan L. Manring, Assistant Professor, Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, Elon University
This roundtable discussion focused on a research project designed to determine whether academic service-learning can be used as a vehicle to foster emotional intelligence among students in undergraduate leadership, organizational behavior, and auditing classes.

Learning Outcomes and Engaging Students With Difference
Sylvia Hurtado, Associate Professor, University of California-Los Angeles
Intentional educators do not leave learning or encounters with diversity to chance. Professor Hurtado shared recent findings on campus practices that enage students with diversity and result in student cognitive, social and democratic skill development during the first two years of college. The impact of co-curricular programming, diversity coursework, service learning, and informal interactions among students was discussed.

Teaching For and About Critical Thinking
Peter Facione, Provost, Loyola University Chicago
Participants analyzed videotape, engaged real problems, and experienced a variety of effective critical-thinking teaching techniques that can be used in a wide variety of disciplines. Emphasis was on both the skills dimension and the dispositional dimension of critical thinking and research findings based on data gathered from across the nation. Handouts included rubrics for assessment.

Building Engagement Across the Campus: Creating Engaged Departments
Building engagement across the campus requires several strategies, one of which is the focus on department/unit engagement. This session both introduced the concepts central to an engaged department and provided an overview of a case study of a campus-based program for developing engagement at the unit level at Portland State University.
Kevin Kecskes, Director of Community-Based Learning, Portland State University; John A. Saltmarsh, Project Director, Integrating Service with Academic Study, and Edward Zlotkowski, Senior Faculty, Campus Compact
Sponsored by the Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement

Shifting Paradigms Require Shifting Policies: Creating a Campus Climate for Engagement
Tori Haring-Smith, Vice President for Educational Affairs, Willamette University
This session explored the institutional strategies, structures, policies,and practices (including promotion and tenure reviews) that can encourage faculty to pursue engaged teaching and learning.

Connections and Reflections: A Distinctive New Integrating Experience
Stephanie L. Fabritius, Associate Provost and Director of Paideia Program, James W. Hunt, Provost and Dean of the Faculty, and Suzanne Fox Buchele, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Southwestern University
How can we help students make connections between their in-class and out-of-class experiences? How can we encourage students to be more intentional in their own education - including their selection and integration of intercultural experiences, leadership, service, coursework, and research and creative works opportunities? Southwestern University's inaugural Paideia Program involves a three-year sequence that encourages and supports a holistic educational experience. This presentation includes details of the program and initial outcomes from student participants.

Project-Based Learning at First Year and Global Centers
John F. Zeugner, Professor of History, Richard F. Vaz, Associate Dean, Interdisciplinary and Global Studies, and John A. Goulet, Professor of Mathematics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
The presentation described two experimental first-year learning communities that finish six to seven projects linking Physics, Calculus, and the Humanities & Arts in a first semester. This learning community experience prepares students for the degree-required cross disciplinary projects at WPI's Global Centers in the upper class years.

Engaging Students in Their Own Learning: Strategies for First-Year Seminars
Michael S. Marx, Associate Professor of English and Coordinator, Liberal Studies, Skidmore College, Laura Greene, Assistant Professor of English, Augustana College, Wendy Ostroff, Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science and Development Psychology, Sonoma State University, Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, and Catherine Berheide, Professor of Sociology, Skidmore College
This session presented pedagogical strategies for first-year seminars that encourage students to develop self-awareness of their thinking and learning processes. Session attendees discussed three techniques that invite students to think metacognitively -- idea notebooks, question logs, and self and peer critique.

Advancing Education for Civic Engagement and Leadership
Barbara Jacoby, Director of Commuter Affairs and Community Service, University of Maryland
This program offered lessons learned at the University of Maryland, College Park from their campus-wide, boundary-crossing process to integrate and develop curricular and cocurricular experiences that enable students to become civically engaged scholars, citizens, and leaders in communities on campus and in the nation and the world.

Strategies for Student Engagement in the Context of Diverse Issues and Perspectives
Jennifer S. Simpson, Assistant Professor of Communication, Angelique Causey, Academic Advisor, and Levon Williams, Student, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne; and Willie J. Heggins, III, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Leadership, Washington State University
This session focused on strategies for student engagement connected to issues of race and diversity. Presenters addressed learning-centered initiatives and classroom attention to difference.

A Comprehensive Center for Engaged Learning: An Undergraduate Initiative at UCLA
Kathy R. O'Byrne, Director, Center for Experiential Education and Service Learning, University of California, Los Angeles
For the past several years, research institutions have been crafting an identity around civic engagement, relying on the best practices of service learning. This presentation demonstrated how a new definition for engaged learning has been created, building on the research literature and connecting with the culture of a research institution. Presenters described a broad array of academic programs that connect faculty, students, and community partners. They also described the leadership role taken to promote engaged learning throughout the greater metropolitan area, with other higher education institutions.

Problem-based Learning Helps Students Address Real-World Situations
Phyllis Blumberg, Director of the Teaching and Learning Center, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Research shows that problem-based learning (PBL) develops deep and purposeful learning. Following the presentation of the key aspects of and research on PBL, participants briefly experienced PBL through a case that emphasizes social responsibility. Participants identified essential characteristics of PBL that foster deep and purposeful learning. In a final activity, they generalized beyond this specific design to show how these characteristics can be built into other types of curricula to effectively engage students.

Laboratory at Our Doorstep: Place as a Catalyst for Engaged Learning
Nancy Bevin, Professor of Education and Director, Life Iowa Program, Shellie Orngard, Program Coordinator, and, Hina S. Patel, Graduate Assistant, Iowa State University; John Roberts Harris, Executive Director, Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place, and Culture, and Robert Goodby, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Franklin Pierce College; Maryann Harper, Rindge Community Project Coordinator
Experiential place-based learning programs at Iowa State University and Franklin Pierce College were presented and discussed. "Life in Iowa" is a cross-disciplinary academic program providing community-based internships and service-learning opportunities for undergraduate students at Iowa State University. The Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture at Franklin Pierce College uses the campus and local community as a laboratory for experiential education, community-based research, and civic engagement that integrate environmental science, anthropology, literature and local history around the theme of place.

Bravo! Can Acting Games Promote Learning in the Classroom?
Miriam Rosalyn Diamond, Associate Director, Center for Effective University Teaching, Northeastern University
Through drama games and exercises, instructors can motivate students of various learning styles to interact with course material in new ways, thereby furthering understanding and expanding perspectives on the material. In this session, participants sampled exercises and addressed means of assessing learning outcomes. They heard how these lessons were applied and evaluated in undergraduate courses. Participants brainstormed ways to implement this approach in a variety of disciplines.

Bridging Academic Barriers: Shakespeare On-Line
Terri C. Washer, Student, Bread Loaf Teacher Network at Middlebury College and Instructor of English, Crossroads Academy, Crossroads Academy, Emily Bartels, Associate Professor of English and Associate Director of the Bread Loaf School of English, Rutgers University
This session focused on a revolutionary, on-line investigation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar between tenth-graders at an alternative school for at-risk students and junior English majors at a state university. The panel will addressed the pedagogical possibilities of creating an interactive learning community across the barriers of geography, age, and educational institutes. The panel and audience also discussed the practical issues of creating and sustaining on-line dialogues for the exploration of literary and cultural texts.

Using Evaluation to Sustain Innovation and Engagement of Students in Socially Responsible Application of Specialized Knowledge
Georgia L. Narsavage, PhD, RN; Associate Professor, Associate Dean Academics
Innovative health profession educational programs must be dynamic, anticipating future trends. Innovation must be sustained to prepare health professionals to lead those trends in a positive direction. Health profession students are engaged in community-based applications of their specialized knowledge through service. The presenter's evaluation model, process, findings, and curricular/programmatic responses were discussed.

On Leadership, Gurus, and Virtual Libraries
Maria R. Garcia, Assistant Professor, Graduate Studies, and Mary Ledoux, Director of Library Services, Franklin Pierce College
This seminar walked attendees through an engaging way of teaching students how to conduct research using electronic libraries. This method introduces students to the concepts of leadership and fosters creativity and critical thinking, while it enables them to learn more about a topic of their choosing. The content will provide a road map for implementation, including sample projects.

Lessons from the Voice of Engaged Students
Sally R. Beisser, Associate Professor of Education, Drake University
This roundtable discussion focused on a Digital Citizenship course at Drake University which served as a starting point for a discussion on the benefits of service-learning. Recipients received a handout, Closing the Digital Divide with Service-Learning.

Geographic Information Systems Service Learning
Nancy R. Crocker, Assistant Director, Arizona State University
This poster session presented information about The Service Learning Program at Arizona State University. The program provides civic engagement and experiential learning through academically-linked service to the community.

Teaching in the Multicultural Setting
Mary Khakoni Walingo, Director & Lecturer, School of Family, Consumer Sciences and Technology, Maseno University
This roundtable discussion focused on helping participants overcome hindrances and identify suitable teaching approaches in multi-cultural settings. Handouts were provided.