Sustaining Learning-Centered Education: Seven Foundations

Stephen C. Ehrmann, Ph.D.Assoc. Dir. for Research and Evaluation

Center for Academic Innovation

Bethesda- Lilly Conference on College Teaching & LearningMay 30, 2015

Outline

I. Learning-Centered EducationA. Learning-centered education, student successB. The example of course redesign in USMC. Other examples

II. Barriers and friction slowing the spread of learning-centered practices

III. Seven foundations for learning-centered practices, and how to strengthen them

Challenge

• How can our program/institution/system:1. Help students learn deeply and successfully so that,

by graduation, they are more prepared for the world (as people, workers, citizens)

2. Improve the success chances of all students, including those whose backgrounds might make them seem the least promising

3. Make education more affordable for students4. Accomplish those goals by making creative use of

available resources.

Topic Today

• Developing and sustaining major changes in outcomes requires developing and sustaining changes in many of the students’ courses and experiences in college.

• Research suggests that the way to achieve these goals is through greater use of learning-centered practices and greater attention to creative use of resources

• This session deals with how to sustain and spread learning-centered practices in teaching

USM Course Redesign Research

• 57 courses redesigned• Almost 35,000 students/year take them• About 2,300 more pass with A, B, or C than

before• Over $1.7 million/year of faculty resources

freed for other activities

Learning-Centered Practices

In your redesigned course, how much of this was there? More

About the same Less

Interactive software or web sites? 93% 7% 0%

Require collaborative learning by students in classrooms or online? 88% 9% 3%

Video instructional material? 84% 14% 3%

Polling and peer instruction 80% 20% 0%

Work outside the classroom (e.g., field work) 78% 19% 3%Engage students with differing needs, preparation, abilities 73% 28% 0%

Rely on faculty lecturing? 0% 21% 79%

Learning-Centered Improvements

• Definition of learning-centered: organized around the value of the resulting student learning– Not by the effort or money put into teaching– Not by the attributes of the entering student

• Definition of “teaching”: doing something that helps others learn

More Examples of L-C activities• Credit for Prior (or Extracurricular) Learning• Backward design of programs and courses• Competence based education• ePortfolios • Intelligent tutors • Learning analytics to guide advising • Learning communities• Outcome-based education (focused on programmatic goals) • Problem-Based Learning• Service learning• Studio and SCALE-UP courses in STEM fields

Discussion: What is Stopping Us?

• Why do these activities seem to spark and subside, spark and subside, rather than spreading and becoming the new normal?– Jot down five barriers/frictions; then share

Barriers, Frictions?• Lack of knowledge of how to use them• Learning spaces inappropriate• Lack of faculty time (in class, out)• Faculty not thinking of students as colleagues• Students believing they don’t have the time to do more work• Institutional definitions of rigor; units; hours• Faculty trying to stay in their comfort zone (their history)• Lack of appropriate incentives (not necessarily monetary)• Faculty not knowing how to use the technology• Quality control – are the student outcomes improved• Students don’t like the work• At a bilingual institution, how should language be used (ASL, written Eng)• Lack of support or training

Seven Foundations That Sustain Learning-Centered Practices

1. Leadership by ideas, goals, attention, resources2. History of coalitions and conflict resolution3. Supportive faculty and staff beliefs4. Faculty experience with learning-centered

practices5. Appropriate infrastructure and support services6. Inst’n provides data, evaluation support7. Supportive personnel policies and practices

1. Leadership for Learning-Centered Education

• Through consistent messaging, attention, and budget priorities, faculty, staff and students know that leadership expects and will invest in:– Development of learning goals, used for backward

design;– Means of making learning more visible to students,

faculty, and staff;– Continual improvement of student learning, year

after year.

sehrmann@usmd.edu 13

2. History of Working Through CoalitionsExample: Meeting Students Where They Are

Agenda Who Does It (together?)Embrace the goal that every admitted student can truly succeed, if taught and treated well

President, Alumni Association, Provost, Deans, web site, etc.

Online materials that give diverse students options that are appropriate, motivating for them

Teaching Ctr, Online Learning, Disability Support, Multicultural Center, International/Foreign Students Office, etc.

Spread muddy points, minute papers, etc. (easy to try, rewarding, low risk)

Teaching Center working with Online education, assessment, departments

Learning analytics supporting better guidance, early warning, etc.

Institutional Research working with Deans, Online Learning, etc.

Faculty Collaboration to Alter Student Expectations

• Use L-C approaches several courses that a student takes in order to challenge their conceptions about learning more effectively.

• It’s tough to be the only faculty member to whom students respond, “No one else is asking me to learn this way!”

Examples from Your Institution?

• Three or more units or committees working together to support a learning-centered practice or program?

• Anything to learn from that?

3. Beliefs and Perceptions…That Interfere with Learning-Centered Practices?

…That Support Learning-Centered Practices?

Need to cover content – takes all the time

Lecturing is of high value, personal, protectedTeaching is my responsibility, learning is their responsibilityGood teaching evaluations – if it aint broke…Assumption that preparedness = intelligenceFear of silence when they ask questions

3. Faculty & Staff Beliefs

• Supportive beliefs to discuss, debate:1. Teach each admitted student as though there is hidden

excellence to nurture2. Meet students where they each are, rather than where

you are;3. Academic programs, courses should be organized around

student capabilities rather than chunks of content;4. Faculty should often work with others, on their programs

as well as on individual courses;5. If I work to improve learning, my colleagues will be

supportive, and my chances for promotion may increase.

3. A Tool for Reporting Faculty Beliefs & Perspectives

• http://bit.ly/facultyviews • Goals:– Faculty benefit from articulating what they see and

believe– Fuel for departmental discussions, faculty

development– Monitor whether foundations are getting stronger

• Looking for pilot test departments:– Steve Ehrmann, University System of MD (sehrmann@usmd.edu)– Gary Brown, AAC&U Fellow– Jean Henscheid, University of Idaho

4. Faculty Prior Experience, Networks

• Institution can encourage faculty to– Dabble in elements of teaching improvement

(e.g., Muddy points as a step toward additional ways of using evidence to improve teaching)• Easily grasped, low risk, and reliable reward

– Network with other faculty trying the same approaches, facing similar challenges; develop trusted relationships

4. Faculty Prior Experience, Networks

• Faculty are more reluctant to undertake learning-centered initiatives (e.g., course redesign) if– They have little or no experience in component

activities (e.g., active learning classroom; backward design)

– They do not have a trusted network of colleagues also interested in these practices – people they know they can listen to, talk to, about this.

Need a Critical Mass of Prepared Faculty

• It will be difficult to recruit faculty to upgrade selected academic programs unless many of the relevant faculty already have relevant prior experience with some elements of learning centered teaching and also have colleagues to call on (support networks).– Faculty who lack both experience and peers may

respond, “I don’t have the time (to risk) on this.”

Start with ElementsElements: Safe, rewarding first steps Elements build comfort with trying more

ambitious steps such as:Muddy points, minute papers ePortfolios

Brief workshop on syllabus design Backward design of a major

Use a validated concept inventory Develop concept test where every answer option is revealing

Assign a Short Video Presentation; Evaluate its Strengths, Weaknesses

Major reduction in lecturing in order to create more class time for active learning

Write-pair-share Other strategies for developing critical thinking about the content

Suggest students use video of class for review; evaluate the results

Try other strategies for helping students with varied ways of learning

Elements and Networking

• Try building informal lists of faculty in various disciplines who are already using various elements.– Goal: every faculty member should be able to find

a colleague in a similar discipline who already has some experience with the element

Building Toward Critical Mass

• Over 3-10 years, what combination of strategies might encourage 80% of potentially interested faculty at your institution to routinely use an elemental activity AND talk with other faculty who are using it, too?

Spreading Elements of L-C Teaching

• Your Ideas:–

5. Shortfalls in Infrastructure, Services?

• At institutions like yours, what kinds of infrastructure or services create difficulties for faculty who trying to use a learning-centered activity?– Classrooms?– Technology infrastructure or support?– Training for teaching assistants?

5. Supportive Infrastructure• Well-funded teaching center can play a role in several different

coalitions.• For trained student learning assistants, the institution provides:

– Courses to train students– Credit – Pay

• Growing inventory of flexible learning spaces • Technology support geared to widespread use, including

inexperienced, risk averse faculty who– Don’t yet know how to use it to improve what and how students learn– Don’t yet have the experience to prepare for technical and teaching

challenges.

6. Analytics, Evaluation Support

• Help faculty monitor student learning outside their own courses, e.g., capstone courses, ePortfolios

• Use analytics to identify problems with pathways to a degree, see students’ grades later on.

• Help program leaders test and assess ideas that make more productive use of limited faculty time, space and money.

6. Personnel Policies, Practices

• Goal: Sustain and spread learning-centered practices

• What personnel policies and practices discourage long-term faculty or staff engagement?

7. Personnel Policies, Practices

• Many kinds of feedback are needed in faculty evaluations; student feedback should be rethought.

• Faculty teaching load credit should include many kinds of effort, e.g., – Teaching more students– Redesigning or coordinating a course or degree program.

• Reward adjuncts for improving teaching; pay them for upgrading and updating their teaching knowledge.

Seven Foundations That Sustain Learning-Centered Practices

1. Leadership by ideas, goals, attention, resources2. History of coalitions and conflict resolution3. Supportive faculty and staff beliefs4. Faculty experience with learning-centered

practices5. Appropriate infrastructure and support services6. Inst’n provides data, evaluation support7. Supportive personnel policies and practices

Conclusion

• Any institution wanting to foster learning-centered innovations to increase student success actually should work on two fronts:A. Planning and carrying out successful initiatives

(design, staff, budget, evaluation, etc.)B. Assuring strong foundations for such learning-

centered practices.