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Reimagining the Purposes of Higher Education in a Dis-integrative Age:

Implications for Researching Classroom Practice

Randy Bass (Georgetown University)

CUNY Community College Research Grant WorkshopJanuary 10, 2018

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tegrativeInclusive Excellence

Exclusive Excellence

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Exclusive Excellence

Integrative

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The great tension of our time in education is between integration and dis-integration

.

How do we make a robust and meaningful education equitably available to everyone?

From unbundlingto rebundling

Randy Bass, GeorgetownBret Eynon, LaGuardia Community College

Two paradigms of education

Integrative (bundled, holistic, coherent):

Curricular & co-curricular as part of a whole

Knowledge, skills & dispositions

Connections & integration

Design of learning experiences for whole

person development

Disintegrative (unbundled):

Design of discrete or granular learning experiences

Elementary and discrete competency-based learning

Learning decoupled from formal boundaries

Analytics that track narrow or micro learning

Two paradigms of education

Integrative (bundled, holistic, coherent):

Disintegrative (unbundled):

Design of discrete or granular learning experiences

Elementary and discrete competency-based learning

Learning decoupled from formal boundaries

Analytics that track narrow or micro learning

Data Analytics / Adaptive Learning

Skill-based Learning

Open Online Courses

The Onrushing

Digital Revolution

Scale

Automate

Reduce instructional

costs

Two paradigms of education

Integrative (bundled, holistic, coherent):

Disintegrative (unbundled):

Design of discrete or granular learning experiences

Elementary and discrete competency-based learning

Learning decoupled from formal boundaries

Analytics that track narrow or micro learning

Two paradigms of education

Integrative (bundled, holistic, coherent):

Curricular & co-curricular as part of a whole

Knowledge, skills & dispositions

Connections & integration

Design of learning experiences for whole

person development

Disintegrative (unbundled):

Educating the whole person?

“formation”

Dispositions: Learning to learnCritical thinkingCreativity Curiosity Resilience EmpathyHumility Ethical Judgment

Striving to cultivate a balanced person, with intellectual, affective, imaginative and reflective capacities.

Knowledge + Skills + Dispositions (+ Values)

“HARD SKILLS”

• Design environments where they are more likely to be cultivated.

• Unscripted contexts, guided inquiry and experience.

• “High-impact practices.”

Levy and Murnane, Dancing with Robots.

Purdue-Gallop Poll on Engaged Work and Flourishing

Two most important predictors of success:

1) Adult mentor who cared about you

2) Sustained project

Two paradigms of education

Integrative (bundled, holistic, coherent):

Curricular & co-curricular as part of a whole

Knowledge, skills & dispositions

Connections & integration

Design of learning experiences for whole

person development

Disintegrative (unbundled):

Design of discrete or granular learning experiences

Elementary and discrete competency-based learning

Learning decoupled from formal boundaries

Analytics that track narrow or micro learning

Rebundling: Toward a New Synthesis

Disintegrative (unbundled):

Design of discrete or granular learning experiences

Elementary and discrete competency-based learning

Learning decoupled from formal boundaries

Analytics that track narrow or micro learning

Integrative (bundled, holistic, coherent):

Curricular & co-curricular as part of a whole

Knowledge, skills & dispositions

Connections & integration

Design of learning experiences for whole

person development

Disintegrative in service to the integrative

Examples of Rebundling

Statway at LaGuardia Community CollegeHabitable Worlds at Arizona State

Examples of Rebundling

Cafeteria College to Guided Pathway College

Examples of Rebundling

Cafeteria College to Guided Pathway College

Four Key Elements of Guided Pathway Colleges:

o Mapping pathways

o Student Goals and Strengths

o Monitoring Progress

o Quality learning

Rebundling: Toward a New Synthesis

Disintegrative (unbundled):

Design of discrete or granular learning experiences

Elementary and discrete competency-based learning

Learning decoupled from formal boundaries

Analytics that track narrow or micro learning

Integrative (bundled, holistic, coherent):

Curricular & co-curricular as part of a whole

Knowledge, skills & dispositions

Connections & integration

Design of learning experiences for whole

person development

Disintegrative in service to the integrative

Dis

-in

tegr

ativ

e IntegrativeInclusive Excellence

Exclusive Excellence

Inclusion, Diversity , Equity (access but experience and outcomes)

Qualified and Prepared studentsRich holistic environments

Liberal arts colleges and universities

open access and public institutions

Startup, disruptors

“REBUNDLING” Minerva University

What might it mean to design for the first quadrant?

Design always begins with tensions

Remediation v. integrated support

Acceleration v. Outcomes

Access v. Rigor, Excellence

Career skills v. Broader lifelong outcomesCommunity Colleges

Connect what has

typically not been connected.

What might it mean to design for the first quadrant?

Advising (IPASS)Curriculum First Year ExperienceStudent AffairsFinancial AidCareer Services

Provide students the tools and scaffolding for integrating their learning.

What might it mean to design for the first quadrant?

ePortfolio Initiatives Make Student Learning Visible

ePortfolio initiatives support reflection, social pedagogy, and deep learning.

ePortfolios hels students reflect on

and connect their learning across

experiences. Advancing higher order

thinking and integrative learning, the

connective ePortfolio helps students

construct purposeful identities as

learners.

Addressing the Whole StudentPurposeful Self-Authorship

Advisement & Academic Planning

Connecting w/ Faculty & Students

External Audiences

Learning Across Disciplines

Learning Across Semesters

Formal Academic Curriculum

Co-Curricular & Lived

Experiences

Students’Integrative ePortfolioPractice

ePortfolio as a high-impact practice

Ensure that assessment and analytics empower everyone.

What might it mean to design for the first quadrant?

Assessment and Analytics that

empowers everyone

Student level (empowerment)

Faculty & Designers(interpretive)

Institutional(empirical)

Ruth Deakin Crick and Simon Buckingham Shum

Design and measure for the greater purposes of higher education.

What might it mean to design for the first quadrant?

ConscientiousnessGrowth mindsetBelongingWell-being

Provide students the tools and scaffolding for integrating their learning.

Ensure that assessment and analytics empower everyone.

Connect what has typically not been connected.

Design and measure for the greater purposes of higher education.

What might it mean to design for the first quadrant?

Integrative

Inclusive

Z-axisQuality

Outcomes assessment

Pedagogical research

What might it mean to research learning and practice in the first quadrant?

What might it mean to research learning and practice in the first quadrant?

– What are the effective practices for embedding academic support into coursework?

“We are giving them a bridge to successfully finish their degree through contextualized math content and exposure to psychological interventions that improve their attitudes towards math and learning.”

Connected to revised core competencies: o Inquiryo Global Learningo Integration

StatWay implemented at LaGuardia CC

Milena Cuellar, Statway in one termNational Forum Pathways Program. Carnegie Foundation. SF 2014

Dev. Math + College-level Stats ALEKS (adaptive tools) Whole learner Complex problems, such as Food Justice and

Climate Change

What is this case a case of?

Data analytics > adaptive learning

As much about the

affective as cognitive

Alignment with ambitious larger outcomes

Focused on inquiry and integration, not merely skills and completion

“REBUNDLING”

What might it mean to research learning and practice in the first quadrant?

– How can we bridge the traditional divide between workforce skills and broader, liberal education outcomes?

Liberal Education (broad, critical, creative, integrative)

Professional/workforce (skills-based, vocational, technical)

Critical Thinking/Problem Solving

Oral/Written Communications

Teamwork/Collaboration

Digital Technology

Leadership

Professionalism/Wor

k Ethic

Career Management

Global/Intercultural

Fluency

Career Readiness

National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)

Matthew Hora, Beyond the Skills Gap

“These competencies can be summed up as a combination of a strong work ethic; rigorous technical training; the ability to solve complex technical problems and interpersonal dilemmas, engage in teamwork, and communicate effectively; and the ability and desire to continually learn.”

Employers survey of competencies

Matthew Hora, Beyond the Skills Gap

“These are the habits of mind that are necessary for innovative and competent workers that the business community craves; for citizens who can contribute to a healthy democracy; for thinkers who can creatively solve the environmental, social, and economic challenges of the twenty-first century; and for students to have the best opportunities for securing employment throughout their working lives.”

Formal undergraduate

curriculum

Experiential co-curriculum

Experiential co-curriculum

Experiential co-curriculum

Study abroad Undergraduate research

Community-based learning

First-year Seminars

Writing-intensive Capstone courses

Collaborative Assignments

“high-impact practices”

Student AffairsAdvising

Internships

Formal undergraduate

curriculum

Experiential co-curriculum

Experiential co-curriculum

Experiential co-curriculum

Accountable talk and thinking

Meet challenges to perspectives and belief, take risks, operate outside comfort zone

Get (and give) frequent and meaningful feedback

Make daily decisions –judgment in uncertainty

NEW ECOLOGY FOR LEARNING

What makes High Impact Practices high impact?

Invest time and effort (time on task)

Opportunity to integrate, synthesize, make meaning

Integrative learning is an

understanding and a disposition

that a student builds across the

curriculum and co-curriculum, from

making simple connections among

ideas and experiences to

synthesizing and transferring

learning to new, complex

situations within and beyond the

campus.

What might it mean to research learning and practice in the first quadrant?

– What forms of authentic experiential learning can deepen learning and serve your population of students well?

Launched in 2016, the Regents Science Scholars

Program provides support for first-generation college

students majoring in biomedical fields.

Regents Science Scholars

Summer before the first year:

Students enroll in a rigorous residential summer bridge program

Summer between first and second year

and second and third year:

Students take specially designed online modules to reinforce knowledge, while allowing students to work and be home with their families.

Regents Science Scholars

In three years, the number of first gen/low income students in biomedical

majors has increased 5x.

>20% of the matriculating class of Biology majors are first-gen,

low-income students

Regents Science Scholars

Glen Manor Feral Wine Project

Professor Heidi Elmendorf, BiologyDirector, Regents Science Scholars Program

Professor Heidi Elmendorf, BiologyDirector, Regents Science Scholars Program

“We covered everything we would have covered just in the context of this project.”

Summer Bridge course on foundations of biology and chemistry.

“They were surprised and daunted that they were the research team. But within one day the most common phrase was, “what would help Jeff?”

Good Morning,I have been thinking about the design of the lab all night. And I think I have an understanding now after reading the material all over again.

My suggestion is to create a experiment with like 20 control groups and tests. I would number the different locations that the microbes are found (on grape, leave, soil, etc.) then organize them into hypothetical dishes. This way hypothetically speaking I will create multiple juices using different combinations of the microbes…This would help me keep track of them, and allow me to distinguish one group from another.

Does this seem possible? Can this lead me to understanding its flavor profile, giving Jeff the best possible taste?

All the best,Nohad W

1&23&4

5&67&8

9&10

11&12

13&14

15&16

1-4: Purcellville-Tankerville Complex, 15-25% slope5-8: Tankerville-Purcellville Complex, 15-25% slope9-10: Myersville Silt Loam, 2-7% slope11-12: Philomont-Tankerville Complex, 7-15% slope13-14: Purcellville-Tankerville Complex, 15-25% slope15-16: Purcellville Loam, 15-25% slope

Identification Procedures

Gram Staining Culture MorphologyGrowth Medium indicators

Gel Electrophoresis Polymerase Chain Reaction

“We covered everything we would have covered just in the context of this project.”

Summer Bridge course on foundations of biology and chemistry. Mesa Community College

Finger Lakes Community College

Queensborough Community College

Del Mar Community College

Southern Georgia State Collegewe

Peer Review, Fall 2015, Vol. 17, No. 4

What might it mean to design and research for the first quadrant?

Ty, Class of ‘21

Provide students the tools and scaffolding for integrating their learning.

Ensure that assessment and analytics empower everyone.

Connect what has typically not been connected.

Design and measure for the greater purposes of higher education.

Inclusive and Integrative

DESIGN RESEARCH

– What are effective practices for embedding academic support into coursework?

– How can we bridge the traditional divide between workforce skills and broader, liberal education outcomes?

– What forms of authentic experiential learning can deepen learning and serve your population of students well?

Thank You!

bassr@georgetown.edu