Artistry in Action: Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practices

Artistry in Action: Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practices E. R. Melander The Pennsylvania State University http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/e/r/erm1/index.html erm1@psu.edu 2005 DUS Conference The Arts and Sciences of Academic Advising September 20 and 21, 2005

Introduction • This is to be an experience-based narrative about theory vs practice gaps: – Practice is both a verb (to act,to do) and a noun (a process to carry out a plan or theory). – Theory as a belief about something--based on conjecture vs theory as a validated set of rules, propositions, principles and techniques; Theory as knowledge about phenomena vs Theory as knowledge about action and doing--about practice. -- Educational roles and practices I have engaged in--and my personal framing of their relationships with educational theories--Three theory vs practice gaps. • Other evidence of theory vs practice gaps: – Personal career paths of academic advisers – Career paths of graduates in a multi-role, multi-practice, complex, dynamic world of work.

Introduction • Theory and practice are associated with different kinds of knowledge: -- Formal knowledge generated by formal methods of scholarship in the disciplines and – Practice knowledge constructed by practitioners to guide their actions in practice experiences. • These differences are distinctive when framing advising practices: – Theory is typically seen as distinct from practice. – But if theory is what practice is all about, why are advising practitioners so suspicious of formal knowledge and theories and why are formal researchers and scholars so disinterested in practitioner’s knowledge about how to do things?

Introduction • There are gaps between theory and practice, between theorists and practitioners and the kinds of knowledge they work with: – Often heard: “That may work in theory, but not in practice.” – Theorists seem more interested in the phenomena of practice rather than the activities of practitioners--scholarly theorists focus on the general case. – Practitioners seem more interested in how they do practice--their actions in practice--rather than in the theories of the phenomena on which they practice--practitioners focus on their experiences with particular cases.

Introduction • What is it that practitioners “do” in their practice? – Overcome the T/P gap by constructing their own theories. – In their practice experiences and activities, practitioners are, at the same time, problem-solvers and scholars--they employ personal scholarship models to construct tacit knowledge and form theories about how to “do” practice--i.e., how to frame problems, make decisions, design actions, and form evaluations to solve problems in particular problem situations. – This is the paradox of practice: practitioners practice personal scholarship to gain knowledge and theorize about cause and effect in practice situations.

Introduction • What is so striking about this paradox? The fact that the paradox--practitioners practice scholarship and theorizing-- is not widely understood among either practitioners or theorists. • Who are the practitioners(and theorizers) in education? – students practicing studenting--becoming educated in how to practice learning; knowledge construction; educational and self-development planning; becoming educated; – teachers practicing teaching and educating; – advisers practicing advising and educating; and the – educationalinstitution itself practicing advising and educating.

Anticipating the story line: Nine “big ideas” • Advising practice involves a paradox: to practice advising also involves practicing scholarship to generate new knowledge and new theories; • Knowledge—its generation, application, and evaluation—is at the core of each practice; our concern is with the epistemology of practice, the nature of practice knowledge; 3. The practice of advising scholarship is based on a simple model of diagnosis, action, and reflection to generate knowledge and solve problems;

Nine Big Ideas 4. “Good practices” by practitioners include two types of reflective theorizing activities: One called framing to generate descriptions of forces and factors affecting the actions and outcomes of practice; the other called “reflection-on-practice”to evaluate the effectiveness of practice activities of diagnoses, decisions, designs, and actions. 5. Practice activities of all major educational practitioners in the institution are organized around working out responses to the question of “what does it mean to be an educated person?”

Nine Big Ideas • Formal knowledge generated in the disciplines is about understanding phenomena and is, in and of itself, inert. Practice knowledge and skills are about doing, about taking action; they empower the practitioner to accomplish some action goal, such as solving a problem or enacting a project. • An educated student is both enlightened (has gained knowledge about phenomena) and empowered (knows how to construct knowledge and use it to guide actions in practice situations).

Nine Big Ideas 8. In higher education, the operative definition of an educated person has focused on enlightenment: a student is educated if she is enlightened with knowledge about phenomena generated by formal scholarship in the basic and applied disciplines. This definition of an educated person is incomplete, for it fails to adequately address the student’s need for empowering visions, practice scholarship skills, and personal practice knowledge so that she can effectively engage in practice. 9. Practitioners in higher education must, for both moral and marketing reasons, reframe their operative definition of educational goals to be that of producing a fully educated person—one who not only knows about things, i.e., is enlightened, but also knows how to do intellectual things in practice, i.e., is empowered to practice.

Brief Overview of Theory of Practice • To help bridge our understanding of the gap between theory and practice, we shall look briefly at the theory of practice. • The study of practice has as its intended outcome the development of a theory of practice, i.e., the identification of certain principles and a narrative that describes the relationships among the component parts and the outcomes of practice. • Modern pioneers in developing the theory of practice scholarship include John Dewey (1933), Chris Argyris (1972, 1975), Donald Schön (1982, 1987), Howard Gardner (1983,1999), and Marcia Baxter-Magolda (1999). (See the bibliography)

Brief Overview of Theory of Practice • Key concept that unlocks the mystery of the relationships between practice and theory: • Practice is essentially the undertaking of intellectual activities to solve problems involved in implementing some purposeful process (project and program enactment can be reframed as problem-solving). – Practitioners’ scholarship activities are focused on the generation and use of knowledge to support decisions, designs, actions, and evaluations needed to solve problems in practice situations.

Brief Overview of Theory of Practice • As problem solvers, all practitioners face a common two-stage task: conducting a diagnosis and taking action: • diagnosing a particular problem situation involves determining what factors are at work and whether enough knowledge exists to reach a solution; • taking action involves deciding on what additional knowledge is needed to achieve a solution and designing an action on how to gain it and then going out and implementing that action. • achieving a solution may require repeated applications of the diagnosis/action cycle to gain additional knowledge until enough knowledge is accumulated to achieve a solution.

Brief Overview of Theory of Practice • The diagnosis/action cycle of practice problem-solving involves a four-step personal scholarship model (OADI) of learning and knowledge construction: • Diagnosis: • Observe: to gather evidence • Analyze: to create and evaluate knowledge in context of problem situation • Action: • Design: to construct an experiment for gaining additional needed knowledge • Implement: to conduct the experimental design

Brief Overview of Theory of Practice • The analysis and design steps, in particular, reflect the creativity--the artistry--of the practitioner in operating beyond generalized formulas and rules: • Artistry is reflected in the creative application of prior knowledge, judgment, and imagination by the problem-solver to accommodate the uniqueness of a particular problem situation. • The practitioner’s reflections (theorizing) on a pool of prior experiences produce prior knowledge and shape prior judgments while stimulating imagination.

Brief Overview of Theory of Practice: Other Concepts • Closed and Open Problem Situations in practice: • Picture puzzle example • Framing (theorizing) in practice: • Contextual and Operational • Expertise in practice: • effectiveness in generating and applying knowledge, skills, and judgments in the conduct of practice scholarship model • “Good Practices” in practice: • decisions and actions taken to ensure accurate framing of problem situations and integrity and effectiveness in applying the diagnosis/action cycle

Brief Overview of Theory of Practice: Other Concepts • Experience (in practice) alone is not sufficient for learning and knowledge construction to occur: reflection is also required. Reflection: – is a process of applying careful thought to make meaning and gain understanding about actions, decisions, and events in terms of their underlying conditions, relationships, causes, and outcomes (theorizing). – is at the core of the practitioner’s scholarship activities to generate knowledge. – can occur before, during, or after the application of the diagnosis/action scholarship model.

Brief Overview of Theory of Practice: Other Concepts • Types of Reflection: – Reflection-in-action: occurs during the implementation of scholarship model--reflects expertise of practitioner – Reflection-on-action: can occur before or after--by practitioner or others-- • Requires a description of diagnosis, actions, and outcomes that is to be reflected upon. • Ladder of reflection--reflective dialogue on reflections on reflections-on-practice.

Brief Overview of Theory of Practice: Other Concepts • Reflective appraisal process: – begins with a reflective description • should address questions of who, what, when, and where and should analyze questions of why and how at each stage of the diagnosis/action cycle. • needs to provide for a communications network in which both the reflective descriptions and appraisals are shared and discussed.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • A disclaimer: • Not attempting to tell you how to frame your advising practice • See helpful DUS publications: The Penn State Adviser and Center for Excellence in Advising (website) • Rather, I am offering my personalized general framing of the roles of the adviser and advisee practitioners as my own reflections-on-advising and educating. • Invite you to reflect on my reflection and to join me in reflective dialogues on frames of advising practices at various rungs in the ladder of reflection.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Coherence across the institution is a core issue in framing learner-centered educational processes and practices: • Coherence requires that there be a consistency among educational processes and practices in terms of their operational definitions of educational purposes, goals, and objectives. • For there to be integrity among the institution’s educational processes, practitioners must focus on a common definition of what it means to be an educated person.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • What should be the educational goal for the student? Response distilled from educational theories: • usually phrased in terms of developing the student’s knowledge and capacities for leading a fully productive and rewarding life in the worlds she will inhabit over her lifetime--world of own mind, world of knowledge, world of work, and worlds of nature and culture. • paraphrased as “the educational goal of the student should be to become both enlightened and empowered to function effectively in the practice of all her adult roles.”

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Student’s role as an educatee and advisee in learner-centered educational environment: • Develop knowledge and expertise on how to design an education that provides for self-development and empowerment as well as discipline enlightenment. • Develop knowledge and expertise on how to apply personal scholarship model to construct, apply, and evaluate knowledge in educational practice situations. • Design a path for navigating the institution’s educational environment that leads to the attainment of personal educational goals.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Student’s competencies as educational practitioner for learning and generating knowledge as to how to frame and solve problems are fostered and are applicable at all levels of the student’s educational experiences: – the immediate levels of operating in context of teacher/learner and adviser/advisee interactions; – the intermediate level of operating in the context of the institutional education environment; – ultimate level of operating in practice roles while leading a fully rewarding and productive adult life.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Three different perspectives on framing advisers’ tasks: top down, bottom up, or a combination of both: – Top down: framing conditioned by the educational goals, roles, and support systems of the institution. – Bottom up: framing conditioned by the educational goals, roles, and capacities of the student advisee. – Mixed mode: framing conditioned by both institutional and advisee educational goals, roles, and conditions--i.e., framing respects authority of both institution and student.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • In mixed-mode model for framing advising: learner-centered advising has become educating the advisee: • Adviser responsible for educating the student as to how to frame her own educational goals and navigation plans to include personal empowerment as well as discipline enlightenment. • Personal empowerment includes discovering and developing capacities for applying multiple intelligences to gain practice knowledge and skills in how to personally frame problems, make decisions, form judgments, and evaluate outcomes in educational practice situations and, by transfer, in other practice situations.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Adviser responsible for providing and interacting with each student in the context of an advising discovery curriculum in order to guide her in: – discovering and developing her own capacities for applying the art of personal scholarship in diagnosing, designing, and reflecting to gain personal tacit knowledge on how to solve educational problems. – discovering and planning on how to navigate the institution’s educational opportunities to achieve her own educational goals and plans.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Four levels of advising curriculum responsibilities--correspond to four types of discovery questions faced by the advisee (note all are “how to” questions of practice): • Questions about how to plan for personal academic and learner development. • Questions about how to construct and assess progress in attaining educational and self development goals. • Questions about how to gain and construct meta-knowledge about knowledge structures, cognition, and learning. • Questions about how to discover and navigate institutional educational opportunities.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Question: Who should decide what knowledge and capacities are needed by the student? • Traditional operational answer: the institution and its specialized knowledge agents, the discipline faculty, decide on curriculum content, reflecting their scholarship knowledge about phenomena of natural and cultural worlds--i.e., focus is on enlightenment of student with discipline knowledge. • Traditionally, adviser directs students to curriculum opportunities and provides check sheet to guide student in navigation path to meet graduation requirements.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Who should decide what knowledge and capacities are needed by the student?InLearner-Centered era: • Student should craft her own definition of what it means to be educated to include both enlightenment and empowerment. • Adviser provides practicum for interactions with student to coach her as she “learns how to craft her own education by doing:” • How to develop self- empowerment vision and personal scholarship capacities. • How to develop own educational goals and design own navigational path to fulfill goals.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • A gap exists between operative goals of higher education and the educational needs of the student practitioner: • Traditional operative goals: to acquire subject matter content knowledge in the form of theories constructed by scholars in the formal disciplines--i.e., enlightenment. • Educational needs of the practitioner—to be able to construct, use, and evaluate knowledge in practice problem-solving situations--i.e., enlightenment plus empowerment.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • The “operative goals/needs” gap: • Represents coherence problem for the educational processes of the institution and this translates to coherence problem for all practitioners in the educational process. • Problem is essentially two-dimensional, one moral and one marketing. • Moral issue: our mission as educators is to meet the educational needs of students and, if we are not doing this, our claims that we do are not true. The integrity of the institution’s educational mission has been violated. • Marketing issue: if our claims are not true, we have not provided truth in packaging. These false claims could result in recruiting or even legal difficulties.

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • To overcome the “operative goals/needs” gap: • We need to reframe the student’s role in the educational process and, correspondingly, reframe the educational roles of the practicing adviser and the institution. • Reframe student’s role: from completing degree requirements to “crafting her own education” by including dual goals of enlightenment and empowerment. • Reframe adviser’s role: see next slide • Reframe institution’s role: from dominant focus of curriculum on enlightenment to more prominent centering on empowerment of student in developing capacities as a scholar of practice knowledge and skills

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Reframe adviser’s role: “from helping students make smart choices about courses and majors to helping students craft a first rate education.” (PSU President Spanier): • Advisers as educators need to introduce discovery advising curriculum to coach students as open-ended problem solvers in designing their own educational goals and developing plans for navigating PSU’s educational opportunities. • Build advising curriculum and reflective portfolios based on DUS Navigator: A Guide to Educational Planning at: http://www.psu.edu/dus/navigate/overview.htm

Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practice • Reframe adviser’s role: “helping students craft a first rate education.” (PSU President Spanier): – Advisers provide discovery advising curriculum. • Advisers conduct interactive sessions with advisees as dialogues to coach their self-development of educational goals and plans through “learning by doing”experiences in a design studio or practicum setting. • Advisers introduce structured reflections into interactions with advisees so that both may learn from their practice experiences. Use portfolios as reflective communication media.

Finale • As a finale to this narrative on framing advising practices, can we turn to an imagined self-reflection by an advisee on her practice experiences in learner-centered advising: • Handout: An imagined reflective Nomination letter for Excellence in Learner-Centered Advising Award • Advising Award Criteria: The awardee must demonstrate a vision, a capacity, an understanding, a strategy, and a measure of outcome success—all centered on the education of the advisee as a self-development learner and practitioner. • Your reflection on student’s reflective nominationletter is invited.

Artistry in Action: Framing Learner-Centered Advising Practices