Learning Modes

I went to the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges & Universities in New Orleans last week, where there was the usual number of good panels on a variety of topics. I focused those that reported on recent innovations in new (in the sense that they are intentionally, systematically and institutionally developed, not in the sense that they haven’t occurred frequently in the past) modes of learning: experiential, interdisciplinary, integrative, technological and cumulative:

• Experiential – the use of internships, field experience, co-curricular service and in-course components (especially in a capstone experience) where knowledge is applied in concrete fashion and students are asked to reflect on their learning in a portfolio or other application. The colleges here allowed a mix of program- and student-based outcomes, were intentional in their multiple assessment measures (interviews, outside evaluators, questionnaires, focus groups, and rubrics), developed general guidelines that crossed disciplines (to allow for internal comparisons), made the student work public and the best awarded, and used data for reverse engineering of preparatory coursework.
• Interdisciplinary – problem- and issue-based courses, team taught in two models (twin full-time instructors or serial guest lectures with always-present primary faculty member), used to challenge deeply-held assumptions in different disciplines and expressing the value of cross-disciplinary dialogue. One example came from a SENCER[Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities] course on the environment, another on the understanding Katrina and the rebuilding of New Orleans, and generally were part of “studies” programs (environmental, gender, urban, etc.). The emphasis was often on conflicting epistemologies and methodologies and the necessity of using multiple perspectives to address.
• Integrative – the use of multiple techniques to encourage students to link their learning is disparate areas (learning communities, paired courses, e-portfolios, etc.) over time. One provocative suggestion was that for institutions with significant minority and first-generation students, the questions of integration into professional, cosmopolitan, and multi-ethnic communities of work and social life are as significant as the integration of the student’s learning and need to be addressed in a similarly intentional manner.
• Technological – the creation of support mechanisms (instructional technologists, centers for teaching and learning, etc.) to allow for the integration of technological innovation into classroom instruction in ways that will encourage faculty to tackle the difficult and ever-changing proposition of utilizing new technologies in their pedagogies. The difficulties of keeping-up with changes, both in terms of their implications for funding as well as workload, necessitates multiple approaches, applications and classroom architectures, as well as dedicated training and support personnel.
• Cumulative – the creation of capstone  experiences as part of a student’s major program or as an  interdisciplinary seminar concluding the general education sequence. Capstones used a variety of approaches: common readings, global perspectives, integration of major and liberal arts core in solving problems, looking at impact of real-world issues on one’s future profession, etc and were tailored to fit the mission and identity of the campus and its students. All required interdisciplinary collaboration in course design and execution as well as public presentations and recognition.

Many of the presenting institutions were small (1500-3000 students), with limited resources but had been beneficiaries of reallocation of existing funds or collaborative grants that made their work possible. They are all moving beyond the basic (and admittedly oft caricatured) notions of learning as content or skills alone. Any transdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning needs to address many if not most of these kinds of learning in order to be successful. They also give a concrete way of approaching what can be a rather nebulous concept. Put together, experiential, interdisciplinary, integrative, technological and cumulative learning would have to be transdisciplinary as well. Not to mention exciting as well.

Comments

[Samantha Bartholomew]

Very interesting. I am interested in how one might think about transdisciplinary learning within an educational leadership program -- that is, for students who are to be prepared to become leaders in schools (particularly K-12 public schools). There is much discussion, particularly in programs preparing leaders for urban schools about the need for programs to design curricula that cuts across public and environmental affairs, health & human services, curriculum, economics, urban planning, etc...in addition to administration and leadership. The point is to prepare leaders who can negotiate the complex terrain and contexts of urban school systems -- not to prepare education leaders to do everything (as schools & educators sometimes are charged to do). I would be interested to read thoughts on what a transdisciplinary approach to education leadership may (or does) look like.