Beginnings meeting at Jim’s house, August 12, 2005
Margot Boyer, Karen Stuhldreher, Laura McCracken, Jack Bautsch, Diana Ma, Carol Hamilton, Jane Lister Reis
Discussion/seminar on Kelli Zaytoun’s “Identity and Learning”
Process: have each person talk about an individual paragraph -- why it is important to them. Everyone listens. Afterwards, we talk about what we learned from each other.
IS our title “Beginnings” a good one?
Carol: lack of coherence of our students’ lives; majority of the group is not
“beginning” – could we be more purposeful?
Carol: Do we need to refine it more in terms of the article? We’re also “beginning.”
Jim: Thinking about what it is we’re about. We don’t want it to become like history 101. What is we want students to do? What are the outcomes?
Karen: the question it raises is what is the intention of beginnings? It really is about people who are starting their college career. Does that preclude students who are really “beginning?”
Jim: Subtitle: connecting, learning, identity and culture. We’re more defined by that than the word “Beginning.” We’ve already thought out that we want to focus on these three major themes: learning, identity, and culture and how these things connect.
Ruth Stiehl – learning spins off into these major outcomes (culture, identity, and learning). Other outcomes that emerge from this learning besides the three. What is that we can design to help promote to help students learn?
Three different ways or frameworks to thimk about teaching: content, competency, learning outcomes.
Karen: Most of us are between competency and content.
Jim: what do I want them to be able to do in the world? These are the learning outcomes. Then working your way back – what are the concepts and issues you want to cover? What are the skills you want them to learn in order to be able to do x in the world? Stiehl says what are the assessment (learning activities) that demonstrate that students are able to do what you want them to be able to do.
Margot: we’re struck with a structure that forces us to do things differently.
Jack: Stiehl: What do students need to be able to do OUT THERE that we’re responsible for “in here?”
Out there is both outside of the college as well as within the college.
Carol: classroom is defined so clearly within their heads. Students feel very practiced – students believe they really know what classrooms are about and what we’re up to.
Jim: Think about our gen ed outcomes and our IS outcomes in terms of “out there in the world.”
Jim handed out “review of course material related to course objectives:
Karen: how could we use these questions and work backward to design assignments. What ways do the students demonstrate their learning?
Jack: portfolio isn’t just self reflection. It’s work and reflection.
Jane: what is evidence?
Jack: I would be engaged in some process to document the learning. Keeping ajournal, do a simulation – I do something that somehow approximates the reenactment. A good conversation is “in what ways can students demonstrate their learning?
What are the major outcomes of Beginnings?
- critical thinking
- what’s the relationship between identity and learning?
- apply knowledge/skill of critical thinking to self
- orient students to an academic setting and give them the skills or help them gain the skills necessary to succeed in that setting. (critical reading, writing, thinking skills)
- self as learner
Carol: we have to keep in mind that students don’t enter at the “beginning.”
Jim: what other outcomes? Introduction to other ways of knowing? Power, privilege and difference?
Karen: they are clearly useful but are the essential?
Margot: being able to diverse world is a outcome for the college. No matter where they are coming from few have operated in that level of diversity with all of those intersecting identities that are present. Therefore, necessary to operate in the college or in the world.
Jack’s list:
- critical thinking
- self as learner (learner/identity/location)
- skills to succeed in college
- work in diverse world
Ruth S. would ask us to turn these into outcomes as gerunds
- recognizing oneself as a learner (seeing yourself as a competent learner) – move from a disempowered learned to an engaged learner -- become more a fully engaged learner and more aware of how they learn best -- noticing is where most of my learning activity is happening; becoming aware of strengths and weaknesses
- thinking critically
- developing skills to succeed in college culture
If we think about these 5 things, could we got back and think about the assignments that get us to those outcomes?