Transcript UNIS Template - Institute for Teaching and Learning

FIRST YEAR: STARTING THE JOURNEY TOWARDS
GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES
The University of Tasmania
31 August 2010
A/PROF SIMON BARRIE, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
How do institutions speak about first year?
› Research on First year experience – transition, retention &
progression
› Research on Graduate attributes – life after university..... But ‘every
journey begins with a single step’
1. A framework for rethinking Graduate attributes
2. First year learning experiences that start the journey towards
graduate attributes
3. Institutional environments to turn graduate attributes into a reality
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WHAT ARE GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES?
They are descriptions of the core abilities and values a university community
agrees all its graduates should develop as a result of successfully
completing their university studies (adapted from Bowden et al 2000).
Graduate attributes are an orientating statement of education outcomes
used to inform curriculum design and engagement with teaching and
learning experiences at a university (Barrie 2009).
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WHAT GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES AREN’T…..
› Not lists of outcomes to be ‘ticked off’
› They are not another extra set of outcomes to be taught as something
additional to the real business of learning at university
› They are not a set of outcomes to be measured through extra assessment
tasks – disconnected to the assessment of university learning
› Though some players in higher education sector might actually prefer
them to be just these things......
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Graduate Attributes are
actually several different
sorts of types of fortunes
1. Precursor
2. Complementary
3. Translation
4. Enabling
Policies describing these graduate
attributes, and universities’ efforts
to foster the development of these
attributes, need to accommodate
these differences
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WHY KEEP THESE LEVELS OF OUTCOME DISTINCT IN
POLICY AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT?
1. Some sorts of GA are inputs not outputs and if we look for ‘value-add’
from university in that group, staff and students will be disappointed
2. Some sorts of GA can be explicitly taught and assessed at university but
one type probably can’t
3. One type of GA is different in every discipline – the others might be
more generic – but that still doesn’t mean they are the same
4. One sort you develop with stand alone skills courses taught by skills
experts and there is no real change to the rest of the curriculum
5. One sort would be developed if all university teachers adopted ‘good
teaching practices’ in their courses
6. Some types are not very appealing to some in the academic community
7. Some types are very appealing to bureaucrats and administrators – and
some scare them
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A FRAMEWORK FOR FIRST YEAR
› Foundation: (precursor & complementary) Generic
skills – ‘off-the shelf’, non-specialised skills for
university learning and work
› Translation: Explicit ways of doing and thinking,
using and applying discipline knowledge… they are
the discipline
› Enabling: Implicit dispositions attitudes & values,
they grow from, but transcend the discipline
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What can we do in first year?
1.
2.
Orient students to university learning
Build students’ capability to learn and develop
graduate attributes
i.
ii.
iii.
3.
Selective foundation skills programs
Inclusive foundation skills programs
Integrated foundation skills disciplinary curricula
Create learning environments that foster
engagement in the formation of identity
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Challenge: Engaging first year learners
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1. Orientation Strategies
› Orientation to university learning seminars in the
disciplines
› ‘Student speak’ explanations of graduate attributes
› ‘Graduate speak’ explanations
› However…..students’ initial learning experiences are
more powerful than any orienting words
› Other orientation strategies?
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2. Build students’ capability to learn and develop
graduate attributes
› Identify and help those students who need additional
input (Precursor)
› Common modules on generic foundation skills
(Complementary)
› Explicitly focus on graduate attributes in core
formative learning experiences in first semester &
reiterate (Translation)
› Build engagement in a learning community and
develop academic identity (Enabling)
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2.1 Identify and help those students who need remedial
input (Precursor)
› Diagnostic tests
› Self assessment
› Programs on basic skills
› Challenges: time before curriculum, resources &
uptake
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2.2 Common modules on generic foundation skills
(Complementary)
› Modules on generic skills
› External seminars
› Stand alone or integrated
› Core curriculum
› Challenges: Time in curriculum, resources, relevance
and integration
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2.3 Explicitly focus on graduate attributes in core formative learning
experiences in first semester (Translation)
› Identify key FY subjects in each degree
› Review curriculum – LO, TLA, A
› Make specific GA an explicit focus of subject
› Spread the GA’s across the FY curriculum
› Reiterate GA message in other units
› Challenges: Major curriculum review, innovative
curriculum in difficult context, collaboration,
vulnerable to lack of consistency – but potentially
powerful
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4. Build engagement in a learning community and develop
academic identity (Enabling)
› Learning engagement and interaction with staff and
students beyond classroom
› Modeling by academics
› Community / work engagement
› Research engagement
› Collaboration between academic and non-academic
staff
› Challenges: !!!!!
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Enabling graduate attributes:
› Better integrative learning experiences in first year build better
student engagement
› Integrative learning – “Fostering students' abilities to
intentionally integrate learning - over time, across courses,
and between academic, personal, and community life” (Huber
& Hutchings)
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Integrative first year learning experiences
(adapted from Kuh)
• First-Year Seminars
• Study Groups
• Common Intellectual Experiences
• Learning Communities
• Research
• Experiencing Diversity
• Service & Community-Based Learning
• Internships
• Capstone Courses and Projects
• +Discipline learning that is like this
• ? Assessment
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University Systems
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CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
FOR GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES
› had not moved beyond policy
› had become compliance
Outcomes
› had become employability
› had become ‘good teaching’
› had become ‘curriculum development’
Process
› was becoming ‘culture development’
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EFFECTIVE CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
1. Clear statement of multilayered outcomes (vision)
2. Make time and make it manageable (practical)
3. Make it intellectually rewarding, fun, and build on what is done (intrinsic)
4. Recognise and reward productive engagement (extrinsic)
5. Participatory leadership – lead by example
Focus on 3 & 4 today
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INTELLECTUALLY REWARDING (ENGAGING)
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
What are some examples?
› turn audit into inquiry,
› turn formal into informal learning,
› turn compliance into critique,
› collaborative, scholarly and creative teaching development acts
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RECOGNISE ENGAGEMENT – EVALUATION
Examples of familiar (teacher focused) ‘measures’ used in audits (inquiries)
Course (discipline and integrative) audits of developments, teaching and
assessment activities
Mapping is of limited benefit for engagement on its own
What is done with the data after matters most
Evidence of effective curriculum development for GA as a KPI? (teacher
measures cross tab with student outcome measures)
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RECOGNISE ENGAGEMENT – EVALUATION
Examples of indirect (learner focused) GA ‘measures’
used in audits (inquiries)
Average # times per semester academics meet with students outside class
Frequency and quality of intellectual engagement with staff outside of class
# and % of students reporting helpful teacher feedback on GA development
# and % of students reporting participation in (integrative learning experiences)
# and % of courses emphasizing multicultural learning experiences
# and % of students involved in faculty research
# and % of degrees requiring practicum, internship, service
Frequency and quality of intellectual engagement with other students not studying your course
Self ratings on development of GA
Did the course / teaching / assessment help you develop these GA?
Employer/Graduate/Peer perception surveys
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RECOGNISE ENGAGEMENT – EVALUATION
Examples of direct (learner focused) GA ‘measures’ used
Course (discipline and integrative capstone) assignments, exams, projects
Perhaps not standardised generic skills tests – Why not?
Un-intended (unwanted and not insignificant) consequences of choices of
measures….
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WHAT COMMITMENT IS REQUIRED
TO ACHIEVE USEFUL OUTCOMES IN FIRST YEAR?
› GA are not a shopping list to be ticked off and they are not somebody
else’s responsibility, it is a team effort across all types of GA and the
university systems need to enable staff and students to engage in
curriculum work.
› Foundation generic skills: Ensure coverage and recognise limits
› Translation graduate attributes: we may need to change the way we think
about teaching the discipline.
› Enabling graduate attributes: we need to find ways to better engage first
year students in the broader integrative learning experiences of university,
and we may need to provide better integrative learning experiences
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Conclusion
› If students are to develop ways of being in the world
that are the hallmark of a graduate, they need
learning experiences in first year that shape the way
they will engage with their university experience.
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[email protected]
http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au
Thank you!