Incorporating Habits of Mind into Science and Technology Curricula2012 Conference on Higher Education PedagogyDr. Robert N. Brent, Dr. Michael L. Deaton, Dr. Jeffrey D. Tang, and Dr. Mary K. Handley

• Part 1: What are “Disciplinary Habits of Mind?” (Mike Deaton and Jeff Tang)

• EXERCISE: What are your discipline’s distinctive habits of mind?

• Part 2: The Global Water Course: A pilot effort to use Habits of Mind to design a course sequence(Robert Brent)

• EXERCISE: How might you apply Habits of Mind?

Outline for this session

Thinking about undergraduate curricula

Program learning

goals

Program Learning

objectives

Curriculum design

Individual course design

“graduation end state”

Specific skills and

knowledge

Course portfolio & sequencing

Course content;

pedagogy; activities,

etc.

“… [is]the study of [your program] merely the completion of a major, that is, the collection of credit-bearing experiences, or the learning of a discipline, that is, a coherent set of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that help us make sense of and fully participate, meaningfully, in human experience?”Gurung, et al Exploring Signature Pedagogies: Approaches to teaching disciplinary habits of mind.

Alternative approachFocus on disciplinary Habits of Mind• Begin by envisioning a practitioner in your field • 5-15 yrs out from graduation

• What is unique about their habits of mind ?• The kinds of problems they tackle?• The lens through which they view and understand the problem?

• The methods they employ?

Defining Habits of Mind for your Discipline

Skills &

Knowledge

World view

The Problem Space

• Values• Problem solving

practices

• Content knowledge

• Language

• Ways of thinking• Analytical lens

• Skills• Unifying themes

Habits of mind and our pedagogy

THE PEDAGOGIES OF THE UNDERGRAD CURRICULUM SHOULD PREPARE STUDENTS …

Our

Exploring Signature Pedagogies: Approaches to Teaching Disciplinary Habits of Mind

Using the Habits of Mind to Shape Curriculum Design from Top to BottomProgram learning

goals

Program learning

objectives

Curriculum design

Individual course design

Habits of

Mind

Habits of

Mind

Habits of

Mind

Habits of

Mind

Integrated Science and Technology B.S. Degree Program

• Real-world problem solving• Eschew theory for its own sake• Teach problems in context

• Broad technical foundation with knowledge of the social context of technology and science• Hands-on learning• Team-based learning and team teaching• Practical, flexible degree for the challenges of the 21st century

The ISAT Curriculum

FoundationsAnalytical MethodsIssues in Sci/TechSocial Context

Sector 1 Sector 2

Sector 3

Concentration Applied Biotechnology

EnergyEngineering & ManufacturingEnvironmentInformation & Knowledge MgmtTelecommunications

Fresh/Soph

Junior

Senior

What is Integrated Science & Technology?

• Integration by students or by faculty?• Role of social context (secondary or primary)• Inter(multi?)disciplinary or a new discipline?• Who are our graduates and what do (should) they do? (avoiding the production of “generalists” who are the jack of all trades but the master of none)

One program’s journey toward defining Habits of Mind?

THE PEDAGOGIES OF THE ISAT CURRICULUM SHOULD PREPARE ISAT STUDENTS …

ISAT

the ISAT practice Our

Exploring Signature Pedagogies: Approaches to Teaching Disciplinary Habits of Mind

core character of ISAT practice an ISAT practitioner

Describing ISAT Habits of MindProblem-Centric Analysis

Skills &

Knowledge

World view

The Problem Space

• Stakeholder inclusion• Human-natural

interaction

• Basic science concepts• Broad technical

competency

• Dynamic systems view

• Computer as problem-solving tool

• Social context understanding

• Socio-technical• Broad in scope • Real-world

issues• Social

significance

Exercise – Describing the distinctive “habits of mind” for your discipline

Imagine an practitioner in your field…possibly one of your graduates 10-15 (or even 20) years after graduation. Suppose they are working as part of a team of specialists from a variety of disciplines to develop a plan to help solve a problem.What would be distinctive about the way this individual practitioner would engage this problem (as compared to the others specialists on the team), in terms of:

• Problem space: Aspects of the problem to which they would be most attentive?

• World view: Values, problem solving practices, data gathering methods, and analytical lens that would shape how they work with the problem?

• Skills and Knowledge: Distinctive skills, knowledge, or language would they employ?

Habits of

Mind

Incorporating Habits of Mind into the Curriculum

The Global Water Course Experiment

Dr. Robert N. Brent

• ISAT Habits of Mind are intrinsically embedded throughout the curriculum, but what would a course look like if it were explicitly designed to teach/instill those habits?

• Problem-centric, focusing on understanding and solving complex

problems• Process/skill focused, rather than content focused• Integrative, incorporating scientific, technical, social, cultural, and

political aspects• Team-based, emphasizing cooperative and complementary

contributions

Habits of Mind: Basis for Course Design

• Organizing theme or problem to be investigated throughout the course

• Represents a significant global problem that is highly complex• Involves interaction of science and social context • Easy solutions are not readily available• Represents the type of large complex problem that we need to

be training our scientists to face in the future

The Global Water Crisis

• Course was inserted as an optional sector in the Junior year

Course Placement Within the Program

Fall2011

Spring2012

ISAT 380E – The Global Water Crisis: Issues and Dynamics(3 Credits)

ISAT 381E – The Global Water Crisis: Solutions (3 Credits)

ISAT 308E – The Global Water Crisis Lab (1 Credit)

Freshman/Sophomore Junior Senior

FoundationsMathChemistryPhysicsBiologySocial Context

Sectors (3of6)Applied BiotechnologyEnergyEngineering and ManufacturingEnvironmentInformation ManagementTelecommunications

Concentration (1of6)Applied BiotechnologyEnergyEngineering and ManufacturingEnvironmentInformation ManagementTelecommunications

• Teaching Team• Brent – expertise in hydrology, water pollution, toxicology• Deaton – expertise in systems dynamics, modeling, data analysis• Tang – expertise in history, sociology, economics

• Student Teams• 6, 4-person teams• Heterogeneously assigned according to:

• Sex

• GPA

• Meyers-Briggs personality test

• ISAT sector interests

Team Development

• Student teams assigned to regional case studies• Southwest US• Nile Basin• Bangladesh• China• Danube Basin• Tigris/Euphrates Basin

• Case studies represent mixture of:• Climates• Socio-economic development• Spatial scales• Political systems

Regional Case Study Approach

• Analyze and define the water resources problem within your region

• Propose viable solutions to the problem

• Post your teams findings on an internet WIKI site

Course Assignment• Your team has been appointed by a United Nations

Commission to:

http://globalwater.pbworks.com/w/page/40537679/FrontPage

• Problem-centric analysis• WIKI development• System dynamics modeling

• Interactions• Dynamics• Unintended consequences• Future scenarios

Key Course Elements

Atmospheric Water

Biomasswater

Ground Water Surface Water Water inglaciers & ice

caps

Ocean water

Groundwater toBiomass

Groundwater toOcean

Surfacewater toOcean

Surfacewater toBiomass

AnnualPrecip to

Ocean

AnnualPrecip toSurface

Glacial melt toSurface water

Glacialmelt toOcean

Annualprecip toglaciers

Annualpercolated

precip

Transpiration

Sublimation

Interflow

• “Boots on the Ground” guest speakers • Ample instructor and peer feedback• Expert Review Panel feedback

• Panel of 8 professionals provided end-of-semester review of WIKI• Professionals from academia, government, private sector, non-

profit, international agencies• Very “real-world” experience

Key Course Elements

• Course• Assessment rubrics for WIKI and presentations• Pre/Post assessment of teamwork skills• Pre/post problem solving assessment

• Program• Problem-solving Analysis Protocol (P-SAP)

• Developed by psychologists Pamela Steinke (Meredith College) and

Peggy Fitch (Central College)

• ~100 ISAT juniors assessed at beginning and end of junior year

• 23 of these participated in Global Water Crisis course sequence

Assessment

• Successful in: • Demonstrating a problem-centric approach to problem solving• Producing a real world experience• Encouraging integration of scientific, technical, social, cultural, and

political aspects• Students were uncomfortable and challenged by:

• Iterative nature of feedback and revision vs. traditional grading schemes

• Teaching of process vs. content• Complexity and scope of the problem• Time and effort involved in producing professional quality

Lessons Learned

• Robert Brent – brentrn@jmu.edu• Michael Deaton – deatonml@jmu.edu• Jeffrey Tang – tangjd@jmu.edu• Mary Handley – handlemk@jmu.edu• References

• Allen, W. & C. Allen. (2003). Habits of Mind: Fostering Access and Excellence in Higher Education. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ.

• Costa, A. & B. Kallick. (2000). Discovering and Exploring Habits of Mind. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA.

• Costa, A. & B. Kallick. (2009). Habits of Mind Across the Curriculum: Practical and Creative Strategies for Teachers. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA.

• Handelsman, J., Ebert-May, D., Beichner, R., Bruns, P., Chang, A., DeHaan, R., Gentile, J., Lauffer, S., Stewart, J., Tilghman, S., & Wood, W. (2004). Scientific teaching. Science, 304, 521-522.

• National Academy of Sciences. (2007). Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future. The National Academies Press.

• Gurung, N & Hayne, A., editors (2009). Exploring Signature Pedagogies: Approaches to Teaching Discplinary Habits of Mind. Stylus Publishing, Sterling, V

References and contact info