Informed Perspective-Taking: A New General Education Model Dr. John Pollard The Big Ideas, Interdisciplinary Thinking Project
Center for University Education Scholarship Mission: To catalyze the practice of educational innovation and scholarship on teaching and learning at the University of Arizona. CUES serves as a model for change and improvement in university education , by fostering exceptional scholarly experiences Guada Lozano, PhD for faculty and staff, and positively impacting Associate Research Professor the quality of education across campus. Director, External Relations & Evaluation Mathematics Director for CUES 2
2018 Fellows John Pollard Vignesh Subbian Cheri Lacasse Mahmoud Azaz Paul Blowers Brian Mayer
Outline Main Presentation (11-11:45a) Project introduction • Key questions • relevance for CUES mission, institutional value for UA Current progress • Next steps • Lunch and Networking time w/ Fellows (11:45-12:05p) Q&A Panel of stakeholders and experts (12:05-12:30p) 4
Q&A Panel Vicente Talanquer Mahmoud Azaz Brian Mayer Distinguished Professor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Chemistry and Middle Eastern and North Sociology & Public Health Biochemistry African Studies CUES Distinguished Fellow CUES Advisory Board CUES Distinguished Fellow 5
Informed Perspective-Taking: A New General Education Model Dr. John Pollard The Big Ideas, Interdisciplinary Thinking Project
Goals of Today Describe my project, Big Ideas Interdisciplinary Thinking , and illustrate its alignment with the CUES mission: Innovation, Scholarship, Grand Challenges and Broader Engagement Present our progress, some initial results and where we are going Inspire you to submit or participate in a CUES project
Tho Thought E t Exper erimen ent Imag agine y your t team eam i is tasked w with c considering t the e following s situation. I In a a rural al, d developing c community, t , the e neares est f freshwater er s source i e is mi miles es aw away f from wh where e members l live. . Ever ery d day, y young p people f from t the e community t travel b by foot t to t this w water er s source mu e multiple e times dai aily t to bring b back ack s supplies o of w water. T This t tas ask t tak akes at leas ast 6 6 hours of t their t r time d dai aily. Select a disciplinary perspective. From this perspective, what sorts of questions would you ask? What ideas would you propose to “improve” this situation? Share your ideas with your partner and try to synthesize an integrated perspective.
Informed and Integrated Perspective-Taking Engineering/Science Perspective • What options exist for automating the water transportation? Natural Science Social Science Perspective • What role does water sourcing play in the community? Who is doing this labor? • How might removing this form of work Social Humanist impact the the societal value of young Science people in the community? Humanist Perspective • If the journey is removed, how might this The most comprehensive solutions emerge from the integration of impact the story telling that occurs among perspectives community members? Artistic expression?
In order accommodate the various perspectives and make a balanced judgement, students must be able to: understand (and appreciate) that there are several important disciplinary perspectives relevant to approaching/understanding each ‘Grand Challenge’ Natural Science read and evaluate a wide variety of academic, creative, professional, and popular sources evaluate the evidence or reasons supporting each of the perspectives Social Humanist Science judge how important each perspective is for the issue at hand apply perspective-taking techniques integrate, synthesize, balance and accommodate knowledge from multiple disciplines in order to produce something greater than would be possible from any one disciplinary perspective (Augsburg & Madison, 2012; Repko, 2008; Golding, 2009)
How does an “interdisciplinary habit of mind” relate to the national conversation of general education reform?
A Shifting General Education Landscape Gen Ed a means to create Gen Ed a means to creating “situationally ready” citizens “well-rounded” citizens Educated, Cultured, Informed Innovative, Creative, Critical Thinkers Enhanced for Social Functions Disruptive Problem Solvers
My Own Ex Experiential al E Evidence
The Challenges of Change in Gen Ed • External reform pressures • Growing emphasis on a culture of assessment • Need to better communicate value of general education, and create more cohesive and integrated structures • Reform = a lot of work + not a lot of agreement • Faculty don’t always like being told to assess, validate, or change classes • Tricky balance between faculty autonomy and flexibility, and the demand for evidence-based instruction and accountability to student learning • The proliferation in interdisciplinary courses and programs has not been matched with the research to answer fundamental questions regarding what interdisciplinary learning entails, which teaching methods are effective, and how to assess and document student mastery. (DeZure, 2017)
What at i is Big Id Ideas, Interdisciplina nary T Thi hink nking ng ? Lever erage e my exper erien ence a e and UA assets t to create o opportun unities w within o our G Gen Ed Ed curriculum a and b d beyond nd f for o our s students t to develo lop i interdis iscip iplin linary r reasonin ing s skills lls Chemical Th Thinking (develop opment a and education onal sch chol olarship) Active L Lear arning Collab Col aborative L Lear arning S Spac aces Tal alented/Co Collaborati tive F Fac aculty UA A Strateg egic Pl Plan
The Big Ideas, Interdisciplinary Thinking Project Curricular Innovation and Development Educational Research Building a Coalition
The Big Ideas, Interdisciplinary Thinking Project Curricular Innovation and Development Educational Research Building a Coalition
What does it mean to be human in a rapidly changing world? Jennie McStotts HNRS 160 Portraits of Humanity Joost Van Haren HNRS 170 HNRS 150 Human Kate Alexander Sounding out Beings: Being Being Human Human
Jigsaw Approach Separate Sections Step 1: Students work in a team to become experts on one segment of new material, while other ‘expert teams’ in the class work on other segments of new material. Step 2: class rearranges, forming new groups that have one member from each expert team. The members of the new team take turns teaching each other the material on which they are experts. Co-Convened Classes
Develop disciplinary understanding of questions and methods used to understand a bigger question Through peer learning activities, students are afforded opportunities to integrate ideas
The co-development of disciplinary knowledge and interdisciplinary understanding What does it mean to be human in a rapidly changing world? Learning cycle approach Use descriptive terms and disciplinary ways of knowing as anchors for developing integration activities Narrative, Metacognition and Evidence Scientific Method, Close Reading, Ethnography
The Big Ideas, Interdisciplinary Thinking Project Curricular Innovation and Development Educational Research Building a Coalition
The Research Classroom Observation Instructor Pre-Post Interviews Assessment Data Collection Student Student Work Interviews
Research Questions Classroom 1. How are interdisciplinary learning goals being Observation translated into instructional practice? 2. How do the pedagogic strategies used by instructors Instructor Pre-Post promote the development of interdisciplinary Assessment Interviews reasoning skills among students? Data Collection 3. How do students perceive the learning experiences? What characteristics of student work provide Student Student evidence for a growth in interdisciplinary Work Interviews reasoning
Pre-post case study assessments
Analysis of Student Work “In the beginning, I wanted to classify the terms solely into one discipline , convincing myself that evidence is mainly associated with natural sciences, narrative strictly within social sciences and humanities as well with metacognition dabbling in both. However, last week’s co-convene session centered on the various ways the three disciplines collect and analyze data shed light on a profound, new realization. I’ve become aware of how imperative each term is to describing and expanding the following disciplines, something I failed to recognize during the time of my first course reflection.” “…my ideas and understanding of each term has broadened, as well as my familiarity with each discipline. It becomes clearer and clearer to me how everything is interconnected, and how each discipline utilizes the similar (if not the same) methods and ways of thinking/interpreting .”
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