Diversity and Global Learning: Shaping Effective General Education Requirements

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Diversity and Global Learning Shaping Effective
General Education Requirements

• General Education Assessment Conference
• Friday, March 5
• Long Beach, CA

Presenters Dr. Daniel Hiroyuki Teraguchi,
Program and Research Associate, Office of
Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives,
AACU Dr. Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Vice
President, AACU
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Diversity and Global Learning An Educational
Priority

• Rationale
• Student Learning Goals
• Template for Assessing Learning Goals

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Diversity and Global LearningRationale

• Research indicates that racial ethnic diversity
  in higher education benefits
• Individual Students
• Higher Education Institutions
• (Curriculum and institution as a whole)
• 3. Economy Private Enterprise
• 4. Society
• Milem, 2003 in Compelling Interest Examining the
  Evidence of Racial Dynamics in Colleges and
  Universities, edited by Mitchell J. Chang, Daria
  Witt, James Jones, and Kenji Hakuta Stanford
  Press.

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Diversity and Global LearningIndividual Benefits

• Enhanced critical complex thinking (Gurin
  Report, 1999)
• Preparation to live and work in a diverse society
  and complex diversity (Gurin Report, 1999 Bowen
  Bok, 1998)
• Greater academic success and decreases in
  prejudicial attitudes (DiversityWorks,
  Smith,1997)
• Advancement of leadership skills through deeper
  understanding of themselves in order to know how
  they are seen by others, which leads to a
  modification of their behaviors and attitudes to
  encourage a spirit of openness and connection
  with others (Antonio, 2001 Komives et al., 1998)
• Greater engagement in life long learning of
  understanding people and cultures in order to
  develop a more democratic community and equitable
  society (Milem, 2003)

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Diversity and Global LearningInstitutional
Benefits

• Higher Levels of Student Persistence (Kuh, 2003
  Milem, 2003 Chang, 1999 Astin, 1993)
• Greater satisfaction with the college experience
  (AACUs Diversity Works, 1997)
• Higher Levels of Academic Excellence (AACU,
  2004 Ancheta, 2003 Milem, 2003)
• Preparation of students for a diverse society and
  workforce (Gurin Report, 1999)

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Diversity and Global LearningCurriculum Benefits

• Several studies confirm that students acquire
  cognitively complex skills and cultural
  understanding through content and pedagogy
  designed to make the most of the diversity in the
  classroom. (Adams and Zhou-McGovern, 1994 and A.
  M. Ortiz, 1995)
• Several studies reveal that womens studies
  courses encourage more debate among students than
  other kinds of courses and, in fact, increase
  friendships between men and women in the classes.
  (Musil, Courage to Question,1992)
• Ethnic studies prepare and educate all students
  for an increasingly diverse society by discussing
  issues of race and ethnicity throughout their
  courses to reduce racial tension and change
  racial attitudes (Hurtado, 1992 Milem, 1994)

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Engagement is Key (Chang, 1996)

• Engagement with racially and ethnically diverse
  students and faculty leads to high levels of
• Retention
• Intellectual Self-Confidence
• Social Self-Confidence
• Satisfaction with College

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Diversity and Global LearningEconomic Business
Benefits(Milem, 2003)

• Better problem solving abilities
• Higher levels of creativity innovation
• Cultivation of workforce with greater levels of
  cross-cultural competence

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Diversity and Global LearningSocietal Benefits

• Greater civic engagement and social
  responsibility (AACU, 2004 Milem, 2003)
• Students gain a deeper knowledge of, debate
  about, and practice of democracy (AACU, 2004
  Milem, 2003)
• Higher levels of service in community/civic
  organizations (Milem, 2003)
• Greater equity in society (Milem, 2003)
• Also visit U Michigans Diverse Democracy
  Project at www.umich.edu/divdemo/index.html

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Diversity and Global LearningAn Educational
Priority

• Institutions of higher education need to sustain
  programs that educate and prepare students to
  live, function, and thrive in a constantly
  changing society (Astin Colleagues, 2000
  Duderstadt, 2000 Musil et al., 2000).
• Polls have indicated that the overwhelming
  majority of Americans and businesses recognize
  the importance of diversity and the need to
  educate students in higher education about
  diversity (American Council on Education, 2000
  Diversity Digest, 1998).

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Diversity and Global LearningGeneral Educational
Vision(AACU, Strong Foundations, 1994)

• Understand and deal constructively with the
  diversity of the contemporary world, a diversity
  manifested not only in ideas and ways of knowing
  but also in populations and cultures
• Construct a coherent framework for ongoing
  intellectual, ethical, and aesthetic growth in
  the presence of such diversity
• Develop lifelong competencies such as critical
  and creative thinking, written and oral
  communication, quantitative reasoning, and
  problem solving.

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Diversity and Global LearningStudent Learning
Goals

• Understanding diversity cultures and
  understanding cultures as diverse
• Developing intercultural skills
• Understanding global processes
• Preparing for citizenship, both local and global
• (AACUs Globalizing Knowledge, 1999)

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Example San Jose State U.

• Self, Society, Equality in the U.S.
• Student Learning Goals
• Study the interrelationship of individuals,
  racial groups, and cultural groups to understand
  and appreciate issues of diversity, equality, and
  structured inequality in the U.S., its
  institutions, and its cultures
•  
• Outcomes
• Describe how religions, gender, ethnic, racial,
  class, sexual orientation, disability, and/or age
  identity are shaped by cultural and societal
  influences in contexts of equality and inequality
•         Describe historical, social, political,
  and economic processes producing diversity,
  equality, and structured inequalities in the U.S.
•         Describe social actions by religious,
  gender, ethnic, racial, class, sexual
  orientation, disability, and/or age groups
  leading to greater equality and social justice in
  the U.S.
•         Recognize and appreciate constructive
  interactions between people from different
  cultural, racial, and ethnic groups in the U.S.

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Example San Jose State U.

• Culture, Civilization, Global Understanding
•  
• Student Learning Goals
•         Give students an appreciation for human
  expression in different cultures and an
  understanding of how that expression has
  developed over time in different cultures.
•         Increase students understanding of how
  other cultural traditions have influenced
  American culture and society, as well as how
  cultures in general develop distinctive features
  and interact with other cultures
• Outcomes
•         Compare systematically the ideas,
  values, images, cultural artifacts, economic
  structures, technological developments, or
  attitudes of people from different societies
•         Identify the historical context of ideas
  and cultural practices and their dynamic
  relations to other historical contexts
•         Explain how a culture changes in
  response to internal and external pressures

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Example Pitzer College

• Student Learning Goal
• Intercultural Understanding
• To encourage students to appreciate their own and
  other cultures by learning about their own
  culture and placing it in comparative perspective
• Recognize how their own thoughts and actions are
  influenced by their culture and history
• Implementation Achieving the Goals
•  Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Exploration
• Working closely with their advisors, students
  select a set of three (3) courses which address a
  topic of special interest them.
• The selected courses should represent at least
  two (2) disciplines and more than one (1)
  cultural perspective.
• In consultation with their faculty advisors,
  students write a brief statement explaining the
  rationale for their selection of courses to meet
  this guideline.

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Example Pitzer College

• Student Learning Goal
• Concern with Social Responsibility the Ethical
  Implications of Knowledge Action
• Teach students to evaluate the effects of actions
  and social policies by undertaking social
  responsibility and by examining the ethical
  implications of knowledge
• Teach students to take responsibility for making
  the world we live in a better place
•  Implementation Achieving the Goal
• Options with academic credit
• A Course that involves either community service,
  community-based fieldwork, or an internship
• A directed independent study with an experiential
  component
• Participation in an External Studies program
  (those involving an internship or community
  service
•  Non-Credit Options
• Involvement in a single semester of 45 hours
  (e.g., 15 weeks x 3 hours per week) of volunteer
  or community service.
• One semester (or equivalent) of service to the
  Pitzer community

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TEMPLATE FOR ASSESSING GLOBAL LEARNING
GOALSAACU's FIPSE-Funded Liberal Education and
Global Citizenship The Arts of Democracy

• See handouts

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Diversity and Global LearningAACU Assessment
Resources

• www.DiversityWeb.org Research, Evaluation, and
  Impact section
• Assessing Campus Diversity Initiatives
• Students at the Center Feminist Assessment
• James Irvine Foundation Campus Diversity
  Initiative Evaluation Project www.aacu.org/irvined
  iveval/index.cfm

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Student OutcomesIntentional Learners

• Empowered through the mastery of intellectual and
  practical skills
• Informed by knowledge about the natural and
  social worlds and about the forms of inquiry
  basic to these studies
• Responsible for their personal actions and for
  civic values
• (AACU, Greater Expectations Report, 2002)

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Structure of Gen Ed Programs with Diversity and
Global Learning as an Educational Priority

• Intro Courses
• Serve as the foundation for student learning in
  general education programs
• Sequential Courses
• A program of study that enable students to
  integrate and synthesize material from courses in
  both the major and general education courses and
  from co-curricular experiences.
• Capstone Courses
• Bringing theory to practice and assessing general
  educations effectiveness

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Example - St. Edwards University(www.stedwards.ed
u/admssns/gened.htm)

• The six required courses, designed to help
  students develop a balanced understanding and
  appreciation for their own and other cultures,
  are as follows
• Freshman Year- The Human Experience
• Sophomore Year- American Experience American
  Dilemmas
• Junior Year- The Identity of the West
  Contemporary World Issues
• Senior Year- Capstone Course

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Example - St. Edwards University

• The American ExperienceThe purpose of this
  course is to examine gender, race, ethnic status
  and social class in experience throughout the
  country's history. The course places individual
  and group experience within the social, economic,
  and political context of various eras, exploring
  group differences in experience and perspective
  as well as the ideals and values of American
  civic culture.
• American DilemmasThis course presents the
  principles and methods of economics, sociology
  and political science to analyze current social
  problems.
• The Identity of the WestThe course deals with
  major developments in the history of the West
  which have made Western culture influential in
  the world.
• Contemporary World IssuesThe course consists of
  two seven-week modules, each dealing with a
  crucial issue in world affairs in different
  non-Western areas of the world. The two modules
  are linked thematically to ensure continuity.

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DePaul University First Year Program

• First Year Program consists of four sets of
  courses and one co-curricular program including
• The Chicago Quarter Courses  introduces them to
  some facet of the intellectual resources of the
  city, emphasizes DePauls roles and mission in
  the city, and provides students with
  opportunities to connect classroom learning with
  persons, communities and institutions in
  metropolitan Chicago.
• Focal Point Seminars  investigate a significant
  person, place, text, idea or event through
  multiple perspectives, learning how educated
  persons strive to understand topics in
  increasingly deeper and increasingly less
  superficial ways.
• The Common Hour Program This co-curricular
  program consists of a series of information
  sessions, discussions, activities and workshops
  designed to help students make a successful
  academic, social and personal transition into the
  university.

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DePaul UniversitySequential Courses

• Sophomore Course on Multiculturalism in the U.S.
• Encompasses various dimensions of identity,
  including but not limited to issues of race and
  ethnicity, class, gender, language, religion,
  sexual orientation, disability as well as
  nationality. These issues and their
  interrelationships regarding the experiences of
  individuals and groups are the foci of the
  seminars.
• Junior Experiential Learning Courses
• Engages students in the first-hand discovery of
  knowledge through observation and participation
  in activities, most often in field-based settings
  outside the classroom. Courses include
• Foreign Study, Domestic Study, Community Based
  Learning, Internships

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DePaul University Capstone

• Provide students with an opportunity to integrate
  their major area of study with broader issues
  raised in their general education program
• Allows students to see the relationship between
  the ideas, perspectives, and substantive areas of
  scholarship and creative work within their major
  field and those learned through significant
  aspects of their course work in the learning
  domain courses and other courses and experiences
  of the Liberal Studies Program.

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Developmental CycleStudents

• WHO AM I?
• (knowledge of self)
  Experience/Identity
•  
• WHO ARE WE?
• (communal/collective knowledge)
  Comparative
•  
• WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO BE THEM?
• (empathetic knowledge)
  Experiential
•  
• HOW DO WE TALK WITH ONE ANOTHER?
• (intercultural process knowledge)
  Intergroup Dialogue
•  
• HOW DO WE IMPROVE OUR SHARED LIVES?
• (applied knowledge) Civic
  Engagement/ Community Development

• Dr. Caryn McTighe Musil of AACU

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In American Pluralism and the College Curriculum
(AACU, 1995)

• AACU proposed that every college student should
• Acquire knowledge of the diverse cultures,
  communities, and histories that comprise US
  society
• Connect this knowledge to a continuing engagement
  with democratic ideas and aspirations
• Develop experiential as well as formal
  understanding of these topics
• Develop deliberative capacities for a world lived
  in common in which unitary agreement does notand
  is not likely ever toexist.
• Four curricular recommendation are suggested to
  meet the above goals
• Experience, Identity, and Aspiration
• United States Pluralism and the Pursuits of
  Justice
• Experiences in Justice Seeking
• Diversity, Equity, and Relational Learning in
  Majors, Concentrations, and Programs

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Examples of Pedagogies of Engagement

• Democratic Pedagogies
• Civic Engagement
• Deliberative Dialogue
• Inquiry-based Pedagogy

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Effective Curricular Change Process(Schmitz,
1992, AACU)

• Manage Campus-Wide Debate
• Keep Process Open-Take Criticism Seriously
• Conduct Ongoing Assessment and Use Findings to
  Alter Courses
• Construct Ongoing Faculty Development
  Opportunities/Include Pedagogical Change
• Use National and Local Data in Support of Changes
• Build Consensus Over Time
• Be Prepared for Resistance from Both Colleagues
  and Students
• Re-energize Transformation Efforts Through
  Assessment and Cultivation of New Partners
• Advocacy Compromise
• Ownership

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www.diversityweb.org

• Diversity Innovations Curriculum Change Provides
  
• Diversity Requirement Models
• Advanced US Global Courses
• General Education Requirements

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Climate and Intergroup Relations
Global Context
National Context
Dimensions of Campus Diversity
Educating all students for a pluralistic society
Access and Success
Institutional Vitality Viability
? Dr. Daryl Smith of Claremont Graduate
University reproduced by the Association of
American Colleges and Universities
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www.aacu.org

• April 15-17, 2004Network for Academic Renewal
  MeetingPedagogies of Engagement New Designs
  for Learning In and Across the DisciplinesChicago
  , IL
• May 21-26, 2004The Institute on General
  EducationNewport, RI
• October 21-23, 2004Network for Academic Renewal
  MeetingDiversity and Learning Democracy's
  Compelling InterestNashville, TN

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Contact Information

• Dr. Caryn McTighe Musil
• Association of American Colleges Universities
• Senior Vice President
• Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global
  Initiatives
• Musil_at_aacu.org
• 202-387-3760 x426

• Dr. Daniel Hiroyuki Teraguchi
• Association of American Colleges Universities
• Program and Research Associate
• Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global
  Initiatives
• Dt_at_aacu.org
• 202-884-7429