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2.3.10 Knowledge Table for Process Educationby Mark Schlesinger (Vice President of Academic Technology, University of Massachusetts, Boston) and Daniel K.

Apple (President and Founder, Pacific Crest)

Educators introduced to Process Education in faculty workshops often want to begin implementing a wide range of best practices in their courses. This module highlights central concepts, processes, and tools that support the educational philosophy presented in the module 2.3.1 Introduction to Process Education. This module also highlights the broad range of institutional and instructional environments in which these can be applied, as well as a mindset for facilitating deep learning and personal growth. Faculty will find that many items appearing in the knowledge table can help strengthen their own professional development.

The Knowledge Table

Knowledge tables communicate the infrastructure that supports an area of knowledge. This includes key concepts, processes, tools, contexts, and ways of being. Table 1 presents a knowledge table for Process Education. Items appearing in Table 1 are ordered thematically to facilitate discussion in each of the sections that follow.

Key Concepts

The concepts highlighted in this module provide a shared language for understanding teaching/learning, promoting transformation, reflecting on success/failure, and communicating results, methods, and discoveries to other like-minded educators. These concepts are grouped into three areas: developing knowledge, growth and development, and measuring results.

Knowledge ConstructionAs clarified in Pacific Crest’s Learning Process Method-ology (2.3.8), learning is not a magical happening, but a very disciplined set of actions that are more effective if done in sequence. These purposeful actions bring about construction of knowledge to reach intended learning outcomes; precise statements of what students will learn and what they will be able to do. If learners, educators, and institutions assure that strong learning outcomes are met after each learning experience, a quality learning process will exist. Learning outcomes for a course should span multiple levels of knowledge, ranging from awareness to working expertise.

The relationship between educators and learners plays a major role in how efficiently and effectively outcomes are met. Modern research on how people learn confirms that knowledge must be constructed within the mind of the learner (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). Realization of the importance of learner ownership underlies a variety of recent movements in math, physics, and writing instruction that feature active learning (Tagg, 2003). This is in marked contrast to more traditional approaches to teaching/learning that center on faculty performance and focus on the instructor’s responsibility for effectively presenting material.

Growth and Development

There is much more to education than mastery of subject matter. A cornerstone of Process Education is that transformational change (growth) within an individual is valued as highly as the knowledge which that learner constructs (learning). Thus it is important to address both learning and growth in our classrooms and degree programs. A barrier for some educators is their inability to believe that learning rate can be improved through advancing learning skills. Learning rate is a function of the aggregate of current performance with the learning skills. One needs to attain a threshold level of learning skills to be a lifelong, self-directed learner. Another important threshold is that of becoming a self-grower. The key differentiation between a lifelong learner and a self-grower is that while both can fluently construct their own knowledge, self-growers can also assess their own performance and mentor their own growth.

In the Faculty Guidebook, an important distinction is made between teaching and mentoring. Teaching is defined as the facilitation of the quality of learning, while mentoring is the facilitation of personal growth. To engage in quality teaching as well as quality mentoring, faculty and students must develop a relationship characterized by mutual shared respect. This respect should incorporate a mutual belief in potential for growth, a shared commitment to the learner’s success, and a willingness to undergo temporary failures on the way to that success. Learning, teaching, and mentoring are most effective if they support the learner’s life vision.

Measuring Results

To be an effective educator, one must develop the criti-cal ability to measure, assess, and evaluate learning and its associated learning outcomes (Huba & Freed, 2000). Fundamental to this ability is the educator’s understand-ing of the separate and distinct purposes of assessment and evaluation. Assessment involves improving future performance, while evaluation measures performance against standards to determine a level of quality. Funda-mental to quality assessment and quality evaluation are well thought-out performance measures that can gauge both

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the level of learning (knowledge) and growth in learning skills. To determine what these performance measures need to be, learning experiences need to be measured against strong performance criteria that communicate essential elements of quality.

Key Processes

Integrating the concepts discussed above requires a number of fundamental educational processes that can be employed with ever-increasing complexity and creativity. This guidebook is full of methodologies to help you become more proficient in your use of academic processes. These processes are grouped into four major areas: designing

Concepts Processes Tools Contexts

learning process

learning outcomes

levels of knowledge

learner ownership

active learning

learning versus growth

learning skills

learning rate

lifelong learner vs. self-grower

teaching vs. mentoring

shared respect

life vision

assessment vs. evaluation

performance criteria

designing a program

designing a course

designing an activity

creating methodologies

facilitating learning experiences

constructive intervention

measuring performance

mentoring

creating a learning environment

assessing learning

evaluating learning

communicating

professional development

modeling quality learning

conducting action research

cooperative learning

structured activities

methodologies

reflection time

Learning Assessment Journal

peer assessment

self-growth paper

learning communities

Classification of Learning Skills

course management system

foundations course

capstone course

profiles

portfolios

rubrics

community colleges

liberal arts colleges

technical schools

professional schools

research universities

high schools

summer camps

lecture courses

general education courses

laboratory courses

academic advising

living groups

developmental education

online learning

faculty committees

Way of BeingA process educator…

wants to see growth in others.trusts and respects students.is a risk-taker.is willing to shift control to students.can handle and adapt to change.has the desire to be a self-grower.enjoys assessment and is open to feedback.utilizes self-assessment to improve future performances.works well with others, and uses time efficiently and effectively.

a learning experience, managing a quality learning experience, continuous quality improvement of the learning experience, and professionalism of the educator.

Designing a Learning Experience

A quality educational experience is a product of con-scious design, informed by the concepts described above (Krumsieg & Baehr, 2000). There are several processes that can be used to help design and improve differently-scaled learning experiences. The first process is designing a program, including its intentions, learning outcomes, performance expectations, broad structure, means for determining outcomes, and the underlying philosophy supporting the program. The second process is design-ing a course to produce a portion of the program learning outcomes. This involves course-level learning outcomes, performance criteria, sets of activities, a knowledge table, and assessment and evaluation systems. The third process is designing an activity to maximize student-centered learning during each class period. Within courses and activities, key processes can be learned much more effec-tively if the faculty member invests in creating method-ologies. As you progress through this guidebook, you will learn about key methodologies for learning, assessment, facilitation, curriculum design, and even a methodology to create methodologies. The goal of a methodology is to take expert knowledge and make it accessible to the learner in the form of a step-by-step model.

Table 1 Knowledge Table for Process Education

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Managing a Quality Learning Experience

Faculty accustomed to more traditional courses and classroom sessions find that a process learning environment presents new time performance challenges. By attending to the learning process itself, in addition to topics, student work products, and submission deadlines, one gets a deeper and more immediate sense of what is happening at every moment (Hanson & Wolfskill, 2000). Therefore, the primary role of the process educator is to facilitate learning experiences. This includes setting high expectations associated with clear performance criteria and then engaging in constructive intervention. This type of intervention involves a few key steps: identifying when a student is having difficulty, isolating the key skill that is impeding the learning performance, and presenting the student with an appropriate learning challenge to help him or her advance the use of that skill. Teaching also includes creating a learning environment. Starting with respect and shared commitment to learning, this environment involves ongoing student-instructor rapport. Through it, learners discover the means to accept learning challenges, reflect on discoveries, and analyze failures. Mentoring is the term used to describe the teacher/learner relationship that makes profound personal development possible. It is important that mentors be role models as well as effective advocates for their mentees.

Continuous Quality Improvement of the Learning Experience

Building quality in teaching/learning requires the instructor to develop a clear sense of the level of student learning, as well as his or her growth in learning skills. If we have clear expectations of what performances we require from the student at the end of the learning experience (performance criteria), they are in a much better position to accurately measure performance. Measuring performance is the basis for both assessing learning and evaluating learning. When we assess, we use measurement to improve future performance. When we evaluate, we compare measurements to standards to determine the level of quality. Creating and maintaining separate course assessment and evaluation systems is as important as assembling curriculum materials. Aligning individual course assessment and evaluation systems with those of an entire program and institution greatly facilitates strategic planning and accreditation initiatives.

Professionalism of the Educator

Many academic performances are based on processes that are used daily. Communicating is fundamental to learning, teaching, and mentoring. This includes active listening, rephrasing, articulating, perception checking, and formal presentation skills. Another critical area involves ongoing professional development through assessing past efforts,

formulating a strong annual plan, pursuing continuing education, and constantly assessing current efforts to improve both knowledge and performance skills. Many would say we learn best by teaching. It follows that modeling quality learning in the presence of students and colleagues is good practice. Modeling demonstrates that learning is not restricted to the boundaries of the classroom. Educators can also dramatically expand their influence by coaching students to serve as apprentice teachers and mentors. Likewise, educators in different contexts and locations can join in an extended learning community in which all academic activity becomes the fodder for action research which often involves qualitative methods. Dynamic in nature, this type of inquiry is done with the knowledge that system behavior may change during the course of the research.

Key Tools

An educator’s effectiveness depends on his or her proficient use of academic processes, as well as the size of his or her toolkit for teaching/learning. This guidebook provides a multitude of general-purpose and special-purpose tools that provide valuable prompts for both students and teachers. These tools are designed to strengthen teaching/learning processes, as well as to improve work products. They fall into three broad categories: classroom tools, organizational tools, and program tools.

Classroom Tools

Cooperative learning promotes the development of shared performance expectations, individual accountability, positive interdependence, social skills, and group processing to support a wide range of learning outcomes (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 1998). Efficient use of learning time can be increased through structured activities and methodologies (Krumsieg et al., 2000). In a high-level performance environment, it is important to bring closure to past learning and growth experiences. This can be accomplished in several ways, including oral and written reflection. A learning assessment journal helps students assess their learning and create action plans for future activities. Many learning activities can also be enriched through peer assessment of various work products. In so studying the work of others, students come to see strengths and areas for improvement in their own work. On the other hand, producing a self-growth paper can help students develop a panoramic view of a semester or term’s achievements. By analyzing such cumulative data as journal entries, team reports, and other academic accomplishments, they can create a portfolio of evidence documenting their growth and development over time. An examination of the assembled data can then be used to effect their own transformational change.

2.3.10 Knowledge Table for Process Education

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Organizational Tools

A very effective strategy for advancing student success is to establish cohorts of learners spanning multiple classes and grade levels through formal and informal learning communities (Johnson et al., 1998). Course management systems such as Blackboard™ and WebCT™ provide a convenient and instantaneous method for disseminating updated course materials and a forum for real-time discussion about course content and assignments. The Classification of Learning Skills is a powerful instrument for parsing human performance across different domains, right down to specific skills. Visualizing this organizational structure can both help faculty make constructive interventions and help students self-assess their learning performance (Krumsieg et al., 2000).

Program Tools

Many colleges and universities have instituted foundations courses and programs, often based on the First-Year or Freshman-Year Experience Programs modeled by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina. These college-orientation courses prepare incoming students for academic life at the post-secondary level. In so doing, they promote buy-in to institutional and program objectives and produce a powerful shared experience that sets cultural norms for course achievement within specific disciplines. Analogously, capstone courses document the gains made within a program; they also serve to transition students from the classroom to the modern workplace. Ideally, graduate and alumni performance should match the learning and thinking profiles typical of professionals in their chosen fields. These expected behaviors can also be assessed and evaluated by assembling portfolios of student work that document their growth and development over time, space, and performance areas. Students’ academic achievements can also be accurately measured by applying a variety of rubrics to the work products they assemble (Huba et al., 2000).

Context

Heightened interest in Process Education accompanies the growing realization among educators and policy makers that the educational process needs to focus more explicitly on the needs and development of the student. This realization traverses all educational institutions and instructional environments, including those beyond the 12th grade, which have traditionally been least susceptible to student-centered concerns. A number of exciting institutional changes have emerged from leading community colleges around the nation (O’Banion, 1997). Conventional notions of “scholar” and “research,” for example, have been challenged and have been supplanted by a new vision emphasizing scholarship not in the content area but in the secondary discipline of teaching and learning (Boyer, 1998).

Way of Being

The more your values and belief systems align with the ways of being in the knowledge table, the easier it will be for you to implement a process-oriented approach to teaching/learning. You will most likely find some of these to be easier than others. The ones that you find difficult should be taken to heart and analyzed against your educational philosophy. Thoughtfully responding to this list is likely to produce a transformation in your own learning and could pave the way for doing things in the classroom that you never dreamed before. The attitudes that you carry with you in the halls of your institution and within the walls of your classroom are just as important as what you know.

Concluding Thoughts

This module, along with the glossary, defines a vocabulary for building and sharing understanding about teaching and learning. As such, section editors and authors contributing to the Faculty Guidebook have made a concerted effort to define and use items from the knowledge table in a consistent manner. In doing so, we hope our readers will be better able to connect educational theory with best practices in teaching/learning. At times, the lifelong journey to become a more effective educator can seem daunting. The Faculty Guidebook team encourages you to use this module as a compass, checking your bearings often to remind yourself what you have accomplished and to seek out fruitful areas for future focus.

ReferencesBoyer Commission. (1998). Reinventing undergraduate

education: A blueprint for America’s research universi-ties. Menlo Park, CA: Carnegie Foundation.

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Hanson, D. M., & Wolfskill, T. (2000). Process work-shops: A new model for instruction. Journal of Chemi-cal Education, 77, 120.

Huba, M. F., & Freed, J. E. (1999). Learner-centered assessment on college campuses: Shifting the focus from teaching to learning. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. A. (1998). Active learning: Cooperation in the college classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction.

Krumsieg, K., & Baehr, M. (2000). Foundations of learning. Lisle, IL: Pacific Crest.

O’Banion, T. (1997). A learning college for the 21st century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.

Tagg, J. (2003). The learning paradigm college. Boston: Anker.

2.3 Intellectual Development: Learning Process