Design Activity #1

Design Principles for Whole Student Formation Shift faculty culture from “critique” to “construct and connect” Student voices needed in this process What do we need to UNLEARN to do this? Do these design principles form a part of an alternative worldview that is emerging? “Myth bust:” “staff” can be educators too! Multiple ways of learning Bridge between residences, civic engagement, academic disciplines Use reflection as way to make connections We need to understand better how we value, not just what we value. Axiological practices are too little understood We need to flip some orthodoxies Innovation and risk rewarded Identify and leverage “positive deviance” (cf. A Gawande) Local/ global; political/ personal; theory/ practice “Peripheral centrality:” “the center is nowhere… the circumference is everywhere.” Wisdom that comes from margins – want to do “both / and” Empower connection – stimulate don’t just stipulate Living and learning; intergenerational learning; learning across disciplines Opportunities for narrative analytics, discourse analytics Get past the fear of putting student data in the hands of students Your work is your badge The most important questions have yet to be asked because they fall between disciplines (paraphrased Alasdair McIntyre) What if we evaluate the quality of our engaged community

Shared Responsibility for Whole Student Formation Use disciplinary accrediting bodies to set standards in line w/ whole person goal Inter- and trans- disciplinary courses and majors where shared outcomes for students are imagined Interdisciplinary programs (minor, major, programs) with co-taught courses and faculty shared across departments Is “disciplinary teaching and learning” really the most relevant model to put formation at the center? Why assume its continuation?? Reflection arc of: “what?” “so what?” “now what?” Global learning beyond or beneath study abroad /away University funding for community-based learning coordinators at community partners where students are deployed / placed for credit courses Shared language across the institutional silos Agree on shared language of formationIntegrity! We taught them how to bring down the system Faculty development opportunities focusing on designing for formational outcomes e.g. GU Summer Institute sessions on designing for formational outcomes This shared responsibility should be across universities, phases of educators and across countries in the world “Habits of Mind and foundational concepts” (designed a common university-wide language to talk about curriculum) Shared responsibility = shared opportunity People in buildings and grounds can be interdisciplinary educators Linking” service, learning, research, community, engagement

Move the Margin to the Center Challenge the autonomy of “theory” by shifting student language to hypothesize before they theorize from a too-limited standpoint / context Experiential learning = “sustained project;” explode the semester model! Some practices have widely disparate levels of access. Formation and deep learning can’t be the domain of the privileged few Learning from the history of experimenting colleges and universities in the 20s 30s 60s Gallup “Great Jobs Great Lives” report could help with this; create momentum for this focus Student-built open- web personal learning networks = experiential learning in the digital VCU Faculty need experience with experiential learning -> HIPs -> formation (LaGuardia FYS) Share info about granting agencies that support this work Seeing all of us in the “academy” as learners Students facilitate learning on either common areas of interest for a common issue / cause or creative imagination Mentoring is often at the margins in a faculty system that rewards “teaching” and “scholarship” – time to move mentoring into this equation -> teacher-scholar-mentor Agency is often at the margins Mentoring. Parker Palmer asks not “what made your mentor great?” but what was it about you that made your mentor want to mentor you Teach people how to DO – model that Knowing students as individuals – distinctly different – would help Who decides the impact measures; who collects and analyzes and interprets the data? Class contracts / graduation contracts where students take responsibility for narrating

Connect What Hasn’t Been Connected Flipped orthodoxy – “are students ready for college” -> “are colleges ready for students” This project takes forward thinking and risk taking administration, which is all too rare Need to change the way staff and faculty are valued and rewarded differently “I’ve been in this really great MOOC for the past 20 years – its called the internet” – Patrick Masson We need to create integrated databases that connect curricular and co-curricular data to model whole person development We are doing this at LaGuardia -> it takes a culture shift on both sides Connect: e.g. Spit4Science researchers and practitioners all focused on college behavioral health Align student community on a set of “21 st century” values. Not only what adults hand to them Philosophy across the curriculum Work study program as High Impact Practice Measuring impact outside the classroom in cost effective manner Teach learners (faculty & students) how to unknow as much as how to know Advising teams connecting faculty and student affairs New Common Book VCU aligned w/ QEP Curriculum and co-curriculum all designed together and iteratively with students at center of feedback loop