Intentional Program Design: The Intersection of Global Learning

Outcomes and Experiential Education

April 12, 2013

James M. Lucas Assistant Dean, Global Education & Curriculum

Undergraduate Education, Office of the Provost

Michigan State University

WHO KNOWS THIS

REFERENCE?

Study Abroad Narrative

• “Life changing” and “transformative”

• Helps students • Personally

• Interpersonally

• Culturally

• Academically

• Linguistically

• Driving force behind campus

internationalization and national

security

Assumptions

• Longer is better, immersive is better

• All experiences are educative just by

the fact that they are experienced

• Students’ motivation and readiness

• Faculty background in intercultural and

experiential learning

Changing the Narrative

• Observation

• Language

• Uni-directional

Positivist

• Intercultural

• Immersion

• Transformation

Relativist

• Intervention in learning

• Purposeful in design

• Mutli-layered and ethical implementation

Constructivist

Traditional Study Abroad Planning

Curriculum

Knowledge, attitudes, and

skills

Pedagogy

How & why

Structure

Who, what, where, & when

Process, not a Program

Pre-Departure

Structure

Curriculum

Pedagogy

In-Country

Structure

Curriculum

Pedagogy

Re-Entry

Structure Curriculum Pedagogy

Backward Design

Backward Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998) – Note

many updates to this as well

Program Design with Intention

Goals & Outcomes

Skill-based

Content-based

Dispositions

Course format

Content material

Activities

Readings

Assignments

Assessment

Formative

Summative

Institutional Goals

General Education

College/ Department

Program/ Major

Course

Nested Goals & Outcomes

Institution-Level View Learning Outcomes

Learning Experiences Assessment

College Curriculum

Major Curriculum

Gen. Ed. Curriculum

Quantitative Knowledge

Writing

Integrative Studies

MSU Undergraduate Learning Experience

Co-Curriculum

Neighborhoods

UG Research

Program-Level View

College Curriculum

Education Abroad

Gen. Ed. Curriculum

Quantitative Knowledge Writing

Integrative Studies

Program

B

Program

A

Program

C

How do the program requirements help

students achieve the desired goals and

outcomes?

How does the program interface with other

parts of the institution?

Goals and Rationales for Global Education

• What do you want students to

learn?

– Competency and conceptually based,

not content based

– Content is a vehicle to deeper

understanding, not the end goal

• What is the goal for education

abroad on your campus?

– Utilitarian

– Humanitarian

• Relationship between nation states

• Emphasis on geographical and socio-political actors and boundaries

International

• Relationship between people and cultures

• Emphasis on macro-scale issues that influence people across borders

• Systems focus, cognitive as well

Global

• Relationship between cultural and ethnic group in terms of social, economic, & political power

• Typically a domestic focus in U.S. focusing on “core” racial-ethnic groups

Multicultural

• Encompasses multicultural and international

• Tends to be about engagement and communication only though

Intercultural

International

(Gutek)

Global

(Kirkwood)

Multicultural

(Banks)

Food, fun, & festivals

Acceptance

Social Justice

Citizenship

Equity

Cultural studies

Language

International Relations

Business and Law

Contested Concepts

Hallmarks of Global Education

• Focus on issues from a systems,

integrated, interdisciplinary perspective

• Focus on people and cultures, not places

• Concepts that transcend time and space =

knowledge is transferrable across context

• Social justice and diversity valued and

integrated into content

• Aspect of making student ready to tackle

complex issues and be participative in the

world

Lessons Learned at MSU

• Defining words is critical

• “Competition” between multicultural

and intercultural

• Trouble with certain concepts

– Language

– Citizenship

• Trouble with affective, dispositional

aspects of learning

• What’s the value added for education

abroad?

Make it Measurable

• Need to take lofty goals and translate them

into measurable outcomes

– After X, students can…..

– What can I “measure” or “observe” to indicate that

the students have learned

• Operationalizing dispositional and non-

cognitive outcomes is difficult – what is the

bar and how do you know?

• Develop rubrics to guide evaluation and

benchmarking

Levels of Assessment

• Institutional, program, course,

assignment

• Based on your goals and learning

outcomes

– What do you want your students to think,

feel, and/or do?

– One year after your class or program,

what would you hope that students will

remember or be able to accomplish?

Types of Assessment

• Not about grading and course

evaluation

• Formative and summative

• Not about evaluating the faculty

member

• At this stage, you are thinking about

the types of evidence you would find

compelling as indicators of student

learning, which should guide program

design

Lessons Learned at MSU

• Timing and implementation

– Scale and test fatigue

– Getting students to respond to surveys post-class,

post-program

– Some of this learning takes time to manifest

– Gathering base-line data

• Faculty need assistance with learning

outcomes assessment

– Using classroom assessments to assess learning

and not memorization

– Concepts and outcomes based instead of content

• Finding valid ways to assess non-cognitive

variables; self-reported data

Using activities

• Alignment and intentionality of

readings, lectures, field visits, movies,

speakers, etc.

• Assignments can be assessments

and/or activities that further learning

• All efforts should further students

acquisition of the stated goals

• To be educative, all activities need to

be organized well

Experiential Learning Theory (Kolb, 1984)

Lessons Learned at MSU

• New form of course organization and

academic freedom

• Move beyond making assumptions

that student understand what we

intend for them to learn

– Preflection and reflection

– Clear purpose

• Alignment

– Testing for knowledge vs. learning

– Assigning work or doing activities that

does not build toward the goal

Closing Thoughts…

• Nested set of goals for program

leaders to follow

• Support and faculty development

opportunities

• More time upfront, but generally

helpful on the back-end

Build it, and they might

come

Built it intentionally, and

they will learn