Education for Personal and Social Responsibility: A Major Focus?

1. Education for Personal and Social Responsibility: A Major Focus? Nancy O’Neill, Director of Programs, Office of Education and Institutional Renewal; and Assistant Director, Core Commitments Engaging Departments Institute Thursday, July 9, 2009, Platt Rehearsal Room

2. Session goals Highlight AAC&U’s Core Commitments Initiative and new campus climate data on education for personal and social responsibility Engage participants in brainstorming ways to strengthen education for personal and social responsibility in the major Review promising work being done by Core Commitments leadership consortium to make education for personal and social responsibility pervasive, intentional, and transparent

3. I. AAC&U Initiative Core Commitments: Education for Personal and Social Responsibility

4. Five dimensions of personal and social responsibility Striving for Excellence Cultivating Personal and Academic Integrity Contributing to a Larger Community Taking Seriously the Perspectives of Others Developing Competence in Ethical and Moral Reasoning and Action

5. Guiding philosophy Student learning is the collective obligation of all individuals and units responsible for the curriculum and co-curriculum Education for PSR, to be intentionally fostered in all students, should pervade institutional cultures Higher education institutions have an educational and civic obligation to unapologetically teach for personal and social responsibility

6. Guiding philosophy Ethical, civic, and moral development should be closely tied to a substantive vision for student learning in the college years that is shared across constituent groups The development of personal and social responsibility is cumulative, builds on prior knowledge and experience, and should be assessed along the way

7. II. Data on Faculty (and Others’) Views

8. Different views of the same campus What do faculty think their institutions should be doing? What do faculty think they themselves should be doing? What do students think about faculty members’ role in educating for personal and social responsibility?

9. III. Brainstorming Ways to Strengthen PSR in the Majors

10. Data Dialogue Readings Collect & share examples of existing departmental efforts Address resistance and hesitation How Do You Begin the Conversation with Faculty?

11. Do students apply for entry into the major? Do students have mandatory advising in the major? Do students have to take an “Intro. to the Major” or theory course? Do students have to take a methods course? Do students complete some sort of culminating work? How Do You Begin to Think about the Major Curriculum?

12. Do students apply for entry into the major? (essay, interview) Do students have mandatory advising in the major? (interview, review of work samples) Do students have to take an “Intro. to the Major” or theory course? (embedded course assignments that could be assessed across sections) Do students have to take a methods course? (ethical responsibilities in doing research) Do students complete some sort of culminating work? (original work or some other demonstration of mastery) How Will You Know You are Making a Difference?

13. Work within existing courses/structures in the major Minors, certificates, citations, tracks Entry, midpoint, and culminating assignments/assessments New courses, sequences Coordinate with and build on: general education the co-curriculum electives graduation requirements Make efforts transparent to students Things to Consider

14. IV. Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility: Campus Examples

15. Expansion of BGeX, engagement initiatives; “top 25” courses “BGeXperience,” begun in 2002, involves all first-year students in intensive academic experiences focused on critical thinking about values. Faculty are at work to expand BGeX throughout the four years. The engagement initiative is helping students to put this training into practice, combining their investigation of values with experience working on projects of importance to the surrounding community. Analyzing “top 25” enrolled courses to embed PSR Bowling Green State University

16. Faculty development Faculty development producing Core Commitments content for courses in political science, philosophy, religious studies, engineering, health professions, humanities, religious studies, education, political science, and English. Involving key faculty figures, such as Dean of Engineering School, who also chairs faculty senate. PSRI and CAI (Center for Academic Integrity) data showed disparity between student and faculty perceptions about faculty knowledge regarding academic integrity rules, procedures, and processes. Developed course innovation project for faculty to produce an academic ethics/academic integrity (AE/AI) seminar for other faculty. University of Central Florida

17. Majors infusion Quality Enhancement Plan for SACS reaccreditation focusing on ethics and civic responsibility (ECR), writing, and quantitative literacy ECR introduced through First Book program and integrated into all first-year experience courses. Then, all programs identify a minimum of two courses taken by their majors which include significant instruction, reinforcement, or experiential learning in disciplinary aspects of ECR Every program is developing a required capstone that includes senior-level, discipline-specific ECR competencies University of Alabama-Birmingham

18. Majors infusion University-wide committee developed rubrics and guidelines for designating ECR courses (one that intentionally instructs students in civic responsibility, the role of diversity, ethical reasoning, and/or contemporary events and issues) UAB has also developed rubrics and guidelines for designating a course as a program’s capstone. Each capstone includes coverage and assessment of discipline-specific ECR, including professional ethics, the value of diversity in the discipline, and the impact of the discipline on society. Fourteen programs ranging from Theatre and Social Work to Biomedical Engineering and Physics have had capstone courses approved, and four additional applications already await review. University of Alabama-Birmingham

19. PSR-designated courses; faculty fellows Faculty advisory group assembled for PSR coursework. Developed three PSR course designations along a continuum: the first type is a social justice education course that includes attention to issues of justice and equity; the second type is a service-learning course; and the third type is a community-based research course Faculty advisory group completed an inventory of current course offerings with PSR focus Departments identified, recruited, designated, and trained a departmental engaged faculty fellow to focus on PSR curriculum change St. Mary’s College of California

20. Core Commitments Resources, AAC&U Web site:www.aacu.org/core_commitments/resources.cfm Personal and Social Responsibility Institutional Matrix: www.aacu.org/Core_Commitments/documents/PSR_Institutional_Matrix.pdf Bowling Green State University: www.bgsu.edu/offices/provost/CoreCommitments/background.html University of Central Florida: http://ucfcorecommitments.wordpress.com/ University of Alabama at Birmingham: http://main.uab.edu/Sites/DOE/ECR/36599/ St. Mary’s College of California: www.stmarys-ca.edu/lasallian-approach/events-and-programs/walk-the-talk/index.html Resources